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The Iron Pirate ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

Plain Tale of 
Strange Happenings on the Sea ^ 

^ ^ By Max Pemberton 




TWO COPIES RECEIVED 


Chicago and New York ♦♦♦ 
Rand, McNally & Company 


T 


T2 3 

2 . 


Copright, 1897, by Rand, McNally & Co. 


>> dV _ ff 



/ 


a. 


PREFACE. 


When the first edition of this book was pubhshed, there 
was, together with much kindly appreciation, not a little 
discussion as to the range of its possibilities and the exacti- 
tude of its details. Many disputed the scientific accuracy 
of the theory which would seek to drive a ship by a gas- 
engine; others again declared that neither cunning nor 
money could contrive the building in secrecy of so large 
a vessel. It is my good fortune at the present time to be 
able to answer the first of these criticisms out of the mouth 
of so sure an authority as Professor Kennedy, who has 
not only admitted the possibility, but has proclaimed the 
probability, of gas as a marine motor of the future. As 
to the second objection, I may point out that the ^‘name- 
less ship” was built in Italy ostensibly for a South Ameri- 
can Kepublic, and that secrecy as to her general construc- 
tion is not vital to my story. 

The world has ever loved the filibuster and the pirate. 
There are few whose pulses have not been stirred in the 
days of their youth by the records of some “Jolly Roger,” 
and the rattling surprise of some Pirate King at whose 
feet they have sat in the pages of Marryat, and of his 
countless imitators. But piracy— now at the end of the 
nineteenth century; piracy which must wage war with the 
telegraph, with steam, with the navies of the nations! 
“The two are incompatible,” cries the man in the street. 
“The thing is not to be dreamt of,” declares the lieutenant 
from his bunk. How far I have been able to combat these 
preconceived notions of improbability, it remains for others 
to say. Yet, if they should admit that there is here any- 
thing of the great sea spirit of the past, even a whisper of 
the voice of the romance which has been, then will it be 
my privilege to reckon this among the happiest of my 
works. 

MAX PEMBERTON. 

1 Aberdare Gardens, 

West Hampstead, London. 

January 14th, 1896. 



THE IRON PIRATE. 

A PLAIN TALE OF STRANGE HAPPENINGS 
ON THE SEA. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE PERFECT FOOL ASKS A FAVOR. 

‘‘En voiture! en voiture!” 

If it has not been your privilege to hear a French guard 
utter these words, you have lost a lesson in the dignity of 
elocution which nothing can replace. ^‘En voiture, en voi- 
ture; five minutes for Paris.” At the well-delivered 
warning, the Englishman in the adjoining buffet raises on 
high the frothing tankard, and vaunts before the world his 
capacity for deep draughts and long; the fair American 
spills her coffee and looks an exclamation; the Bishop pays 
for his daughter’s tea, drops the change in the one chink 
which the buffet hoards disclose, and thinks one; the trav- 
eled person, disdaining haste, smiles on all with a pitpng 
leer; the foolish man, who has forgotten something, makes 
public his conviction that he will lose his train. The 
adamantine official alone is at his ease, and, as the minutes 
go, the knell of the train-loser sounds the deeper, the horrid 
jargon is yet more irritating. 

I thought all these things, and more, as I waited for the 


6 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


Perfect Fool at the door of my carriage in the harbor station 
at Calais. He was truly an impossible man, that small-eyed, 
short-haired, stooping mystery I had met at Cowes a month 
before, and formed so strange a friendship with. To-day 
he would do this, to-morrow he would not; to-day he had a 
theory that the world was egg-shaped, to-morrow he be- 
lieved it to be round; in one moment he was hot upon a 
journey to St. Petersburg, in the next he felt that the 
Pacific islands offered a better opportunity. If he had a 
second coat, no man had ever seen it; if he had a purpose 
in life, no man, I hold, had ever known it. And yet there 
was a fascination about him you could not resist; in his 
visible, palpitating, stultifying folly there was something 
so amazing that you drew to the man as to that unknown 
something which the world had not yet given to you, as a 
treasure to he worn daily in the privacy of your own en- 
joyment. I had, as I have said, picked the Perfect Fool up 
at Cowes, whither I had taken my yacht, Celsis, for the 
Eegatta Week; and he had clung to me ever since with a 
dogged obstinacy that was a triumph. He had taken of my 
bread and eaten of my salt unasked; he was not a man sucli 
as the men I knew — he was interested in nothing, not even 
in himself — and yet I tolerated him. And in return for 
this toleration he was about to make me lose a train for 
Paris. 

^^Will you come on?” I roared for the tenth time, as the 
cracked hell jangled and the guards hoisted the last stout 
person into the only carriage where there was not a seat 
for her. ‘‘Don’t you see we shall he left behind? Hurry 
up! Hang your parcels! How, then — for the last time, 
Hall, Hill, Hull, whatever your confounded name is, are 
you coming?” 

Many guards gave a hand to the hoist, and the Perfect 
Fool fell upon his hat-hox, which was all the personal prop- 
erty he seemed to possess. He apologized to Mary, who sat 
in the far corner, with more grace than I had looked for 
from him; woke Eoderick, who was in his fifth sleep since 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


7 


luncheon, and then gathered the remnants of himself into 
a coherent whole. 

^‘Did anyone use my name?” he asked gravely, and as 
one offended. thought I heard someone call me Hull.” 

^^Exactly; I think I called you every name in the Direc- 
tory, but I’m glad you answer to one of them.” 

'^Yes, and I tell you what,” said Roderick, wish you 
wouldn’t come into a railway carriage on your hands and 
knees, waking a fellow up every time he tries to get a 
minute to himself; I don’t speak for myself, hut for my 
sister.” 

The Perfect Fool made a profound how to Mary, who 
looked very pretty in her dainty yachting dress — she was 
only sixteen; I had known her all her life — and he said: 
cannot make your sister an apology worthy of her.” 

^Tf that isn’t a shame, Mr. Hall,” replied the blushing 
girl. never go to sleep in railway carriages.” 

^^No, of course you don’t,” said Roderick, as he made 
himself comfortable for another nap, ^^but you may go to 
sleep in a railway carriage;” then, with a grunt, ^^Wake me 
up at Amiens, old man,” he sank to slumber. 

The train moved slowly over the sandy marsh which lies 
between Calais and Boulogne, and the vapid talk of the 
railway carriage held us to Amiens, and after. During 
the second half of the long journey Roderick was asleep, and 
Mary’s pretty head had fallen against the cushion as the 
swing of the carriage gave the direct negative to her words 
at Calais station. At last even the maker of commonplaces 
was silent; and, as I reclined at greater length on the 
cushions of the stuffy compartment, I thought how strange 
a company we were then being carried over the dull, drear 
pasture-land of France to the lights, the music, and the life 
of the great capital. Of the man Martin Hall — I remem- 
bered his true name in the moments of repose — I knew 
nothing beyond that which I have told you; but of my 
friends Roderick and Mary, accompanying me on this wild- 
away journey, I knew all that was to be known. Roderick 


8 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


and I had been at Cains College, Cambridge, together, 
friends drawn the closer in affection because our conditions 
in kith and kin, in possession and in purpose, 'in ambition 
and in idleness, were so very like. Roderick was an orphan 
twenty-four years of age, young, rich, desiring to know life 
before he measured strength with her, caring for no man, 
not vital enough to realize danger, an Englishman in 
tenacity of will, a good fellow, a gentleman. His sister 
was his only care. He gave to her the strength of an un- 
divided love, and just as, in the shallowness of much of his 
life, there was matter for blame, so in this increasing 
affection and thought for the one very dear to him was 
there the strength of a strong manhood and a noble work. 

For myself, I was twenty-five when the strange things of 
which I am about to write happened to me. Like Roderick, 
I was an orphan. My father had left me £50,000, which I 
drew upon when I was of age; but, shame that I should 
write it, I had spent more than £40,000 in four years, and 
my schooner, the Celsis, with some few thousand pounds, 
alone remained to me. Of what was my future to be, I 
knew not. In the senseless purpose of my life, I said only, 
‘^It will come, the tide in my affairs which, taken at the 
flood, should lead on to fortune.^’ And in this supreme 
folly I lived the days, now in the Mediterranean, now cruis- 
ing round the coast of England, now flying of a sudden to 
Paris with one they might have called a vulgarian, but 
one I chose to know. A journey fraught with folly, the 
child of folly, to end in folly, so might it have been said; 
but who can foretell the supreme moments of our lives, 
when unknowingly we stand on the threshold of action? 
And who should expect me to foresee that the man who 
was to touch the spring of my life’s action sat before me — 
mocked of me, dubbed the Perfect Fool — over whose dead 
body I was to tread the paths of danger and the intricate 
ways of strange adventure? 

But I would not weary you with more of these facts than 
are absolutely necessary for the understanding of this story. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


9 


surpassing strange, which I judge it to be as much my 
duty as my privilege to write. Let us go back to the Gare 
du Nord, and the compartment wherein Mary and Roderick 
slept, while the Perfect Fool and I faced each other, sur- 
feited with meteorological observations, sick to weariness 
with reflections upon the probability of being late or arriv- 
ing before time. I would well have been silent and dozed 
as the others were doing; of a truth, I had done so had it 
not become very evident that the man who had begun to 
bore me wished at last to say something, relating neither 
to the weather nor to the speed of our train. His restless 
manner, the fidgeting of his hands with certain papers 
which he had taken from his greatcoat pocket, the shifting 
of the small, gray eyes, marked that within him which 
suffered not show except in privacy; and I waited for him, 
making pretense of interest in the great plain of hedgeless 
pasture-land which bordered the track on each side. At 
last he spoke, and, speaking, seemed to be the Perfect Fool 
no longer. 

‘‘They’re both asleep, aren’t they?” he asked suddenly, 
as he put his hand, which seemed to tremble, upon my arm, 
and pointed to the sleepers. “Would you mind making 
sure — quite sure — before I speak? — that is, if you will let 
me, for I have a favor to ask.” 

To see the man grave and evidently concerned was to 
me so unusual that for the moment I looked at him rather 
than at Roderick or Mary, and waited to know if the 
gravity were not of his humor, and not of any deeper import. 
A single glance at him convinced me for the second time 
that I did him wrong. He was looking at me with a fitful, 
pleading look unlike anything he had shown previously. 
In answer to his request I assured him at once that he 
might speak his mind; that, even if Roderick should over- 
hear us, I would pledge my word for his good faith. Then 
only did he unbosom himself and tell me freely what he 
had to say. 

“I wanted to speak to you some days ago,” he said, 


10 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


earnestly and quickly, as his hands continued to play with 
the paper, ‘^but we have been so much occupied that I have 
never found the occasion. It must seem curious in your 
eyes that I, who am quite a stranger to you, should have 
been in your company for some weeks, and should not have 
told you more than my name. As the thing stands, you 
have been kind enough to make no inquiries. If I am an 
impostor, you do not care to know it; if I am a rascal 
hunted by the law, you have not been willing to help the 
law; you do not know if I have money or no money, a home 
or no home, people or no people, yet you have made me — 
shall I say, a friend?” 

He asked the question with such a gentle inflection of 
the voice that I felt a softer chord was touched, and in 
response I shook hands with him. After that he continued 
to speak. 

‘‘I am very grateful for all your trust, believe me, for I 
am a man that has known few friends in life, and I have 
not eared to go out of my way to seek them. You have 
given me your friendship unasked, and it is the more prized. 
What I wanted to say is this, if I should die before three 
days have passed, will you open this packet of papers I 
have prepared and sealed for you, and carry out what is 
written there as well as you are able? It is no idle request, 
I assure you; it is one that will put you in the place where 
I now stand, with opportunities greater than I dare to think 
of. As for the dangers, they are big enough, but you are 
the man to overcome them as I hope to overcome them — 
if I live!” 

The sun fell over the lifeless scene without as he ceased 
to speak. I could see a crimson beam glowing upon a 
crucifix that stood on the wayside by the hill-foot yonder; 
but the cheerless monotony of plow-land and of pasture, 
stretching away leafless, treeless, without bud or flower, 
herd or herdsman, church or cottage, to the shadowed 
horizon, looming dark as the twilight deepened, was in 
sympathy with the gloom which had come upon me as 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


11 


Martin Hall ceased to speak. I had thought the man a 
fool and witless, flighty in purpose and shallow in thought, 
and yet he seemed to speak of great mysteries — and of death. 
In one moment the jester’s cloak fell from him, and I saw 
the mail beneath. He had made a great impression upon 
me, but I concealed it from him, and replied jauntily, and 
with no show of gravity: 

‘^Tell me, are you quite certain that you are not talking 
nonsense?” 

He replied by asking me to take his hand. I took it — 
it was chill with the icy cold as of death; and I doubted 
his meaning no more, but determined to have the whole 
mystery, then so faintly sketched, laid bare before me. 

^Hf you are not pla)ring the fool. Hall,” said I, ^^and if 
you are sincere in wishing me to do something which you 
say is a favor to you, you must be more explicit. In the 
first place, how did you get this absurd notion that you are 
going to die into your head? Secondly, what is the nature 
of the obligation you wish to put upon me? It is quite 
clear that I can’t accept a trust about which I know nothing, 
and I think that for undiluted vagueness your words de- 
serve a medal. Let us begin at the beginning, which is a 
very good place to begin at. Now, why should you, who 
are going to Paris, as far as I know, simply as a common 
sightseer, have any reason to fear some mysterious calamity 
in a city where you don’t know a soul?” 

He laughed softly, looking out for a moment on the 
sunless fields, but his eyes flashed lights when he answered 
me, and I saw that he clenched his hands so that the nails 
pierced the flesh. 

^^Why am I going to Paris without aim, do you say? 
Without aim — I, who have waited years for the work I 
believe that I shall accomplish to-night — why am I going 
to Paris? Ha! I will tell you: I am going to Paris to meet 
one who, before another year has gone, will be wanted by 
every Government in Europe; who, if I do not put my 
hand upon his throat in the midst of his foul work, will 


12 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


make graves as thick as pines in the wood there before yon 
know another month; one who is mad and who is sane; 
one who, if he knew my purpose, would crush me as I crush 
this paper; one who has everything that life can give and 
seeks more; a man who has set his face against humanity, 
and who will make war on the nations, who has money and 
men, who can command and be obeyed in ten cities, against 
whom the police might as well hope to fight as against the 
white wall of the South Sea; a man of purpose so deadly 
that the wisest in crime would not think of it; a man, in 
short, who is the product of culminating vice — him I am 
going to meet in this Paris where I go without aim — 
without aim, ha!” 

‘‘And you mean to run him down?” I asked, as his voice 
sank to a hoarse whisper, and the drops stood as beads on 
his brow. “What interest have you in him?” 

“At the moment none, but in a month the interest of 
money. As sure as you and I talk of it now, there will be 
£50,000 offered for knowledge of him before December 
comes upon us!” 

I looked at him as at one who dreams dreams, but he did 
not flinch. 

“You meet the man in Paris?” I went on. 

“To-night I shall be with him,” he answered; “within 
three days I win all or lose all, for his secret will be mine. 
If I fail, it is for you to follow up the thread which I have 
unraveled by three years’ hard work ” 

“What sort of person do you say he is?” I continued, 
and he replied: 

“You shall see for yourself. Dare you risk coming with 
me? I meet him at eight o’clock.” 

“Dare I risk? Pooh, there can’t be much danger.” 

“There is every danger! But, so, the girl is waking!” 

It was true; Mary looked up suddenly as we thundered 
past the fortifications of Paris, and said, as people do say 
in such circumstances, “Why, I believe I’ve been asleep!” 
Eoderick shook himself like a great bear, and asked if we 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


13 


had passed Chantilly; the Perfect Fool began his banter, 
and roared for a cab as the lights of the station twinkled in 
the semi-darkness. I conld scarce believe, as I watched his 
antics, that he was the man who had spoken to me of great 
mysteries ten minutes before. Still less could I convince 
myself that he had not many days to live. So are the 
fateful things of life hidden from us. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


li 


CHAPTER II. 

I MEET CAPTAIN BLACK. 

The lights of Paris were very bright as we drove down 
the Boulevard des Capucines and drew up at length at the 
Hotel Scribe, which is by the Opera House. Mary uttered 
a hundred exclamations of joy as we passed through the city 
of lights; and Roderick, who loved Paris, condescended to 
keep awake. 

"I’ll tell you what,” he exclaimed, after a period of pro- 
found reflection, "the beauty of this place is that no one 
thinks here, except about cooking, and, after all, cooking is 
one of the first things worthy of serious speculation, isn’t it? 
Suppose we plan a nice little dinner for four?” 

"For two, my dear fellow, if you please,” said Hall, 
with mock of state — ^he was quite the Perfect Fool again — 
"Mr. Mark Strong condescends to dine with me, and in that 
utter unselfishness of character peculiar to him insists on 
paying the bill — don’t you, Mr. Mark?” 

I answered that I did, and, be it known, I was the Mark 
Strong referred to. 

"The fact is, Roderick,” I explained, "that I made a 
promise to meet one of Mr. Hall’s friends to-night, so you 
and Mary must dine alone. You can then go to sleep, don’t 
you see, or take Mary out and buy her something.” 

"Yes, that would be splendid, Roderick,” cried Mary, all 
the girlish excitement born of Paris strong upon her. ‘^Let’s 
go and buy a hundred things” — Roderick groaned — ^fl)ut I 
wish, Mark, that you weren’t going to leave us on our first 
night here; you know what you said only yesterday.” 

"What did I say yesterday?” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


15 


^^That there were a lot of bounders in Paris — and I want 
to see them hound!” 

I consoled her by telling her that bounders never made 
display after six o’clock, and assured her that Eoderick had 
long confessed to me his intention to buy her the best hat 
in Paris, at which Eoderick muttered exclamations for my 
ear only. By that time we were at the hotel, and the 
Perfect Fool had much to say. 

^^Could any gentleman oblige me with the time, English 
or French?” he asked. ^^My watch is so moved at the situa- 
tion in which it finds itself that it is fourteen hours too 
slow.” 

I told him that it was ten minutes to eight, and the 
information quickened him. 

'^Ten minutes to eight, and half a dozen Eussian princes, 
to say nothing of an English knight, to meet; so ho, my 
toilet must remain! Could anyone oblige me with a comb, 
fragmentary or whole?” 

He continued his banter as we mounted the stairs of the 
cozy little hotel, whose windows overlook the core of the 
great, throbbing heart of Paris, and so until we were alone 
in my room, whither he had followed me. 

'^Quick’s the word,” he said, as he shut the door and 
took several articles from his hat-box, ^^and no more palaver. 
One pair of spectacles, one wig, one set of curiosities to sell 
— do I look like a second-hand dealer in odd lots, or do I 
not, Mr. Mark Strong?” 

I had never seen such an utter change in any man made 
with such little show. The Perfect Fool was no longer 
before me; there was in his place a lounging, shady-looking, 
greed-haunted Hebrew. The haunching of the shoulders 
was perfect; the stoop, the walk, were triumphs. But he 
gave me little opportunity to inspect him or to ask for what 
reason he had thus disguised himself. 

^Tt’s five minutes from here,” he said, ^^and the clocks 
are going eight — you are right as you are, for you are a 
cipher in the affair yet, and don’t run the danger I run — 

now cornel’^ 

2 


16 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


He passed down the stairs with this blunt invitation, a^d 
I followed him. So good was his disguise and make- 
pretense that the others, who were in the narrow hall, drew 
back to let him go, not recognizing him, and spoke to me, 
asking what I had done with him. Then I pointed to the 
new Perfect Fool, and without another word of explanation 
went on into the street. 

We walked in silence for some little distance, keeping 
by the Opera, and so through to the broad Boulevard 
Haussmann. Thence he turned, crossing the busy thor- 
oughfare, and, passing through the Eue Jouhert, stopped 
quite suddenly at last in the mouth of a cul-de-sac which 
opened from the narrow street. He had something to say 
to me, and he gave it with quick words prompted by a quick 
and serious wit, for he had put off the role of jester at the 
hotel. 

^^This is the place,” he said; ^^up here on the third, and 
there isn’t much time for talk. Just this: You’re my 
man, you carry this box of metal,” — ^he meant the case of 
curiosities — ^^and don’t open your mouth, unless you get 
the fool in you and want the taste of a six-inch knife. 
That’s my risk, and I haven’t brought you here to share 
it; so mum’s the word, mum, mum, mum; and keep a hold 
on your eyes, whatever you see or whatever you hear. Do 
I look all right?” 

^Terfectly. But just a word: If we are going into some 
den where we may have a difficulty in getting out again, 
wouldn’t it be well to go armed?” 

^^Armed! — ^pish!” — and he looked unutterable contempt, 
treading the passage with long strides, and entering a house 
at the far end of it. 

Thither I followed him, still wondering, and, passing the 
concierge, found myself at last on the third floor, before a 
door of thick oak. Our first knocking upon this had no 
effect, but at the second attempt, and while he was pulling 
his hat yet more upon his eyes, I heard a great, rolling voice, 
which seemed to echo on the stairway, and so leaped from 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


17 


flight to flight, almost like the rattle of a cannon-shot with 
its many reverberations. For the moment indistinct, I 
then became aware that the voice was that of a man singing 
and walking at the same time, and seemingly in no hurry 
to give us admission, for he passed from room to room 
bellowing this refrain, and never varying it by so much as 
a single word: 

“There was a man of Boston town, 

With his pistols three. 

With his pistols three, three, three; 

And never a skunk in Boston town 
That he didn’t chaw but me!” 

When the noise stopped at last, there was silence, com- 
plete and unbroken, for at least five minutes, during which 
time Hall stood motionless, waiting for the door to be 
opened. After that we heard a great yell from the same 
voice, with the words, ^^Ahoy, Splinters, shift along the 
gear, will you?” and then Splinters, whoever he might be, 
was cursed in unchosen phrases as the son of all the lubbers 
that ever crowded a fo’cas’le. A mumbled discussion 
seemed to tread on the heels of the hullabaloo, when, ap- 
parently having arranged the ^^gear” to satisfaction, the 
man stalked to the door, singing once more in stentorian 
tones: 


“There was a man of Boston town, 

With his pistols three. 

With his pistols ” 

^^Hullo— “the darned little J ew and his kickshaws. Why, 
matey, so early in the morning?” 

The exclamation came as he saw us, putting his head 
round the door, and showing one arm swathed all up in 
dirty red flannel. He was no sort of a man to look at, as 
the Scots say, for his head was a mass of dirty yellow hair, 
and his face did not seem to have known an ablution for a 


18 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


week. But there was an ugly, jocular look about his rabbit- 
like eyes, and a great mark cut clean into the side of his 
face, which were a fit decoration for the red-bumt, pitted, 
and horribly repulsive countenance he betrayed. His leer, 
too, as he greeted Hall, was the evil leer of a man whose 
laugh makes those hearing hush with the horror of it; and, 
on my part, forgetting the warning, I looked at him and 
drew back repelled. This he saw, and with a fiush and a 
display of one great stump of a tooth which protruded on 
his left lip, he turned on me. 

^^And who may you be, matey, that you don’t go for to 
shake hands with Eoaring John? Dip me in brine, if you 
was my son I’d dress you down with a two-foot bar. Why 
don’t you teach the little Hebrew manners, old Josfos? 
But there,” and this he said as he opened the door wider, 
^^so long as our skipper will have to do with shiners to 
sell and land barnacles, what ken you look for? Walk 
right along here.” 

The room indicated opened from a small hall, for the 
place was built after the Parisian fashion — akin to that of 
our fiats — and was a house in itself. The man who called 
himself “Eoaring John” entered the apartment before us, 
bawling at the top of his voice, “Josfos, the Jew, and his 
pardner come aboard!” And then I found myself in the 
strangest company and the strangest place I have ever set 
eyes on. So soon as I could see things clearly through the 
hanging atmosphere of tobacco smoke and heavy vapor, I 
made out the forms of six or eight men, not sitting as men 
usually do in a place where they eat, but squatting on their 
haunches by a series of low, narrow tables, which were, on 
closer inspection, nothing but planks put upon bricks, and 
laid around the four sides of the apartment. Of other 
furniture there did not seem to be a vestige in the place, 
save such as pertained to the necessities of eating and sleep- 
ing. Each man lolled back on his own pile of dirty pillows 
and dirtier blankets; each had before him a great metal 
drinking-cup, a coarse knife, which I found was for hack- 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


19 


ing meat, long rolls of plug tobacco, and a small red bundle, 
which I doubt not was his portable property. Each, too, 
was dressed exactly as his fellow, in a coarse red shirt, 
seaman’s trousers of ample blue serge, a belt with a clasp- 
knife about his waist, and each had some bauble of a 
bracelet on his arm, and some strange rings upon his fingers. 
In the first amazement at seeing such an assembly in the 
heart of civilized Paris, I did no more than glean a general 
impression, but that was a powerful one — ^the impression 
that I saw men of all ages from twenty-five years upward; 
men marked by time as with long service on the sea; men 
scarred, burnt, some with traces of great cuts and slashes 
received on the open face; men fierce-looking as painted 
devils, with teeth, with none, with four fingers to the hand, 
with three; men whose laugh was a horrid growl like the 
tumult of imprisoned passions, whose threats chilled the 
heart to hear, whose very words seemed to poison the air, 
who made the great room like a cage of beasts, ravenous 
and ill-seeking. This and more was my first thought, as I 
asked myself, into what hovel of vice have I fallen — ^by what 
mischance have I come on such a company? 

Martin Hall seemed to have no such ill opinion of the 
men, and put himself at his ease the moment we entered. 
I had, indeed, believed for a moment that he had brought 
me there with evil intent, distrusting the man who was 
yet little more than a stranger to me; but, recalling all 
that passed, his disguise, his evident fear, I put the suspi- 
cion from me, and listened to him, more content, as he made 
his way to the top of the room and stood before one who 
forced from me individual notice, so strange-looking was 
he, and so deep did the respect which all paid him appear 
to be. We shall meet this man often in our travels to- 
gether, you and I, my friends, so a few words, if you please, 
about him. He sat at the head of the rude table, as I 
have said, but not as the others sat, on pillows and blankets, 
for there was a pile of rich-looking skins — bear, tiger, and 
white wolf — beneath him, and he alone of all the company 


20 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


wore black clothes and a white shirt. He was a short man, 
I judged, black-bearded and smooth-skinned, with a big 
nose, almost an intellectual forehead, small, white-looking 
hands, all ablaze with diamonds, about whose fine quality 
there could not be two opinions; and, what was even more 
remarkable, there hung as a pendant to his watch chain a 
great uncut ruby which must have been worth five thousand 
pounds. One trademark of the sea alone did he possess, 
in the dark, curly ringlets which fell to his shoulders, 
matted there as long uncombed, but typical in all of the 
man. This, then, was the fellow upon whose every word 
that company of ruffians appeared to hang, who obeyed 
him, as I observed presently, when he did so much as lift 
his hand, who seemed to have in their uncouth way a ven- 
eration for him, inexplicable, remarkable — the man of 
whom Martin Hall had painted such a fantastic picture, 
who was, as I had been told, soon to be wanted by every 
Government in Europe. And so I faced him for the first 
time, little thinking that before many months had gone I 
should know of deeds by his hand which had set the world 
afiame with indignation, deeds which carried me to strange 
places, and among dangers so terrible that I shudder when 
the record brings back their reality. 

Hall was the first to speak, and it was evident to me that 
he cloaked his own voice, putting on the nasal twang and the 
manner of an East-end Jew dealer. 

have come. Mister Black,^^ he said, ^‘as you was good 
enough to wish, vith a few little things — ^beautiful things 
— which cost me moosh money ’’ 

^^Ho, ho!” sang out Captain Black, ^ffiere is a Jew 
who paid much money for a few little things. Look at 
him, boys! — the Jew with much money! Turn out his 
pockets, boys! — the Jew with much money! Ho, ho! 
Bring the Jew some drink, and the little Jew, by 
thunder!” 

His merriment set all the company roaring to his mood. 
For a moment their play was far from innocent, for one 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


21 


lighted a great sheet of paper and burned it under the nose 
of my friend, while another pushed his dirty drinking-pot 
to my mouth, and would have forced me to drink. But I 
remembered HalPs words, and held still, giving banter for 
banter — only this, I learned to my intense surprise that the 
pot did not contain beer, but champagne, and that, by its 
bouquet, of an infinitely fine quality. In what sort of a 
company was I, then, where mere seamen wore diamond 
rings and drank fine champagne from pewter pots? 

The unpleasant and rough banter ceased on a word from 
Captain Black, who called for lights, which were brought — 
rough, ready-made oil flares, stuck in jugs and pots — 
and Hall gathered up his trinkets and proceeded to 
lay them out with the well-simulated cunning of the 
trader. 

^‘That, Mister Black,” he said, putting a miniature of 
exquisite finish against the white fur on the floor, ^fis a 
portrait of the Emperor Napoleon, sometime in the 
possession of Empress Josephine; that is a gold chain 
' — he was eighteen carat — once the property of Don Carlos; 
here is the pen with which Francis Drake wrote his last 
letter to the Queen Elizabeth — beautiful goods as ever 
was, and cost moosh money!” 

“To the dead with your much money,” said the captain 
with an angry gesture, as he snatched the trinkets from 
him, and eyed them to my vast surprise with the air of a 
practiced connoisseur; ^fiet’s handle the stuff, and don’t 
gibber. How much for this?” He held up the miniature, 
and admiration betrayed itself in his eyes. 

“He was painted by Sir William Ross, and I sell him 
for two hundred pounds, my captain. Not a penny less, or 
I’m a ruined man!” 

“The Jew a ruined man! Hark at him! Four-Eyes” 
— this to a great lanky fellow who lay asleep in the corner 
— “the little Jew can’t sell ’em under two hundred, I 
reckon; oh, certainly not; why, of course. Here you. 


22 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


Splinters, pay him for a thick-skinned, thieving shark, and 
give him a hundred for the others.’^ 

The boy Splinters, who was a black lad, seemingly about 
twelve years old, came up at the word, and took a great 
canvas bag from a hook on the wall. He counted three 
hundred gold pieces on the floor — pieces of all coinages in 
Europe and America, as they appeared to be by their faces, 
and Hall, who had squatted like the others, picked them up. 
Then he asked a question, while the little black lad, who 
bore a look of suffering on his worn face, stood waiting the 
captain’s word. 

^^Mister Captain, I shall have waiting for me at 
Plymouth to-morrow a relic of the great John Hawkins, 
which, as I’m alive, you shouldn’t miss. I have heard them 
say that it is the very sword with which he cut the 
Spaniards’ beards. Since you have told me that you sail 
to-morrow, I have thought, if you put me on your ship across 
to Plymouth, I could show you the goods, and you shall 
have them cheap — ^beautiful goods, if I lose by them.” 

How, instead of answering this appeal as he had done 
the others, with his great guffaw and banter. Captain Black 
turned upon Hall as he made his request, and his face lit up 
with passion. I saw that his eyes gave one fiery look, while 
he clenched his fist as though to strike the man as he sat, 
but then he restrained himself. Yet, had I been Hall, I 
would not have faced such another glance for all that 
adventure had given me. It was a look which meant ill — 
all the ill that one man could mean to another. 

^^You want to come aboard my boat, do you?” drawled 
the captain, as he softened his voice to a fine tone of 
sarcasm. ^The dealer wants a cheap passage; so-ho, what 
do you say, Four-Eyes: shall we take the man aboard?” 

Four-Eyes sat up deliberately, and struck himself on the 
chest several times as though to knock the sleep out of him. 
He seemed to be a brawny, thick-set Irishman, gigantic in 
limb, and with a more honest countenance than his fellows. 
He wore a short pea-jacket over the dirty red shirt, and a 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


23 


great pair of carpet slippers in place of the sea boots which 
many of the others displayed. His hair was light and curly, 
and his eyes, keen-looking and large, were of a grey-blue 
and not unkindly looking. I thought him a man of some 
deliberation, for he stared at the captain and at Hall before 
he answered the question put to him, and then he drank a 
full and satisfying draught from the cup before him. When 
he did give reply, it was in a rich rolling voice, a luxurious 
voice, which would have given ornament to the veriest 
commonplace. 

^^Oi’d take him aboard, bedad,” he shouted, leaning back 
as though he had spoken wisdom, and then he nodded to the 
captain, and the captain nodded to him. 

The understanding seemed complete. 

^^We sail at midnight, tide serving,^^ said the captain, 
as he picked up the miniature and the other things; ^^you 
can come aboard when you like — ^here, boy, lock these in 
the chest.^^ 

The boy put out his hand to take the things, but in his 
fear or his clumsiness he dropped the miniature, and it 
cracked upon the floor. The mishap gave me my first real 
opportunity of judging these men in the depth of their 
ruffianism. As the lad stood quivering and terror- 
struck, Black turned upon him, almost foaming at the 
lips. 

^^You clumsy young cub, what d’ye mean by that?” he 
asked; and then, as the boy fell on his knees to beg for 
mercy, casting one pitiful look toward me — a look I shall, 
not soon forget — he kicked him with his foot, crying: 

^^Here, give him a dozen with your strap, one of you.” 

He had but to say the words, when a colossal brute 
seized the boy in his grip, and held his head down to the 
table board, while another, no more gentle, stripped his 
shirt off, and struck him blow after blow with the great 
buckle, so that the flesh was torn, while the blood trickled 
upon the floor. The brutal act stirred the others to a fine 
merriment, yet for myself, I had all the will to spring up 


24 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


and grip the striker as he stood, hut Hall, who had covered 
my hand with his, held it so surely, and with such prodig- 
ious strength, that my fingers almost cracked. It was the 
true sign-manual for me to say nothing, and I realized how 
hopeless such a struggle would be, and turned my head that 
I should not see the cruel thing to the end. 

When the lad fainted they gave him a few kicks with 
their heavy boots, and he lay like a log on the floor, until 
the ruffian named ^^Eoaring John” picked him up and 
threw him into the next room. The incident was forgotten 
at once, and Captain Black became quite merry. 

^'Bring in the victuals, you John,” he said, ^^and let 
Dick say us a grace; he’s been doing nothing but drink 
these eight hours.” 

Dick, a red-haired, penetrating-looking Scotsman, who 
carried the economy of his race even to the extent of flesh, 
of which he was sparse, greeted the reproof by casting down 
his eyes into the empty can before him. 

^Ts a body to cheer himself wi’ naething?” he asked; 
^^not wi’ a bit food and drink after twa days’ toil? It’s 
an unreasonable man ye are. Mister Black, an’ I dinna ken 
if I’ll remain another hoor as meenister to yer vessel.” 

“Ho, ho, Dick the Banter sends in his resignation; listen 
to that, boys,” said the Captain, who had found his humor 
again. “Dick will not serve the honorable company any 
longer. Ho, swear for the strangers, Dick, and let ’em hear 
your tongue.” 

The man, rascal and ill-tongued as I doubt not he was 
at times, refused to comply -with the demand as the food at 
length was put upon the table. It was rich food, stews, 
with a profuse display of oysters, chickens, boiled, roast, 
a la maitre d’hotel, fine French trifles, pasties, ices — and it 
was to be washed down, I saw, by draughts from magnums 
of Pommery and Greno. I was, at this stage, so well 
accustomed to the scene that the novelty of a company 
of dirty, repulsive-looking seamen banqueting in this style 
did not surprise me one whit, only I wished to be away 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


25 


from a place whose atmosphere poisoned me, and where 
every word seemed garnished with some horrible oath. I 
whispered this thought to Hall, and he said, ‘‘Yes,” and 
rose to go, but the Captain pulled him back, crying: 

“What, little Jew, you wouldn’t eat at other people’s 
cost! Down with it, man, down with it; fill your pockets, 
stuff ’em to the top. Let’s see you laugh, old wizen-face, a 
great sixty per cent, croak coming from your very boots — 
here, you, John, give the man who hasn’t got any money 
some more drink; make him take a draught.” 

The men were becoming warmed with the stuff they 
had taken, and furiously offensive. One of them held Hall 
while the others forced champagne down his throat, and the 
man “Eoaring John” attempted to pay me a similar 
compliment, but I struck the cup from his hand, and he 
drew a knife, turning on me. The action was foolish, for 
in a moment a tumult ensued. I heard fierce cries, the 
smash of overturned boards and lights, and remembered no 
more than some terrific blows delivered with my left, as Molt 
of Cambridge taught me, a sharp pain in my right shoulder 
as a knife went home, the voice of Hall crying “Make for 
the door — the door,” and the great yell of Captain Black 
above the others. His word, no doubt, saved us from 
greater harm; for when I had thought that my foolhardi- 
ness had undone us, and that we should never leave the place 
alive, I found myself in the Eue Joubert with Hall at my 
side, he torn and bleeding as I was, but from a slight 
wound only. 

“That was near ending badly,” he said, looking at the 
skin-deep cut on my shoulder. “They’re wild enough 
sober, but Heaven save anyone from them when they’re the 
other way!” 

I looked at him steadily for a moment; then I asked: 

“Hall, what does it mean? Who are these men, and 
what business carries you amongst them?” 

“That you’ll learn when you open the papers; but I 
don’t think you will open them yet, for I’m going to 


26 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


succeed.’’ He was gay almost to frivolity once more. ^^Did 
you hear him ask me to sail with him from Dieppe to- 
morrow?” 

did, and I believe you’re fool enough to go. Did you 
see the look he gave you when he said ^Yes’?” 

^^Never mind his look. I must risk that and more, as 
I have risked it many a time. Once aboard his yacht I 
shall have the key which will unlock six feet of rope for 
that man, or you may call me the Fool again.” 

It was light with the roseate, warm light of a late sum- 
mer’s dawn as we reached the hotel. Paris slept, and the 
stillness of her streets greeted the life-giving day, while the 
grey mist floated away before the scattered sunbeams, and 
the houses stood clear-cut in the finer air. I was hungry 
for sleep, and too tired to think more of the strange dream- 
like scene I had witnessed; but Hall followed me to my 
bedroom and had yet a word to say. 

^'Before we part — we may not meet again for some time, 
for I leave Paris in a couple of hours — I want to ask you 
to do me yet one more service. Your yacht is at Calais, I 
believe — will you go aboard this morning and take her 
round to Plymouth? There ask for news of the American’s 
yacht — he has only hired her, and she is called La France. 
News of the yacht will be news of me, and I shall be glad 
to think that someone is at my back in this big risk. If 
you should not hear of me, wait a month; but if you get 
definite proof of my death, break the seal of the papers you 
hold and read — ^but I don’t think it will come to that.” 

So saying, he left me with a hearty handshake. Poor 
fellow, I did not know then that I should break the seal of 
his papers within three days. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


27 


CHAPTEE III. 

*‘FOUR-EYES” DELIVERS A MESSAGE. 

A warming glare of the fuller sun upon my eyes, the 
cracking of whips, the shouting of fierce-lunged coachmen, 
the hum of moving morning life in the city, stirred me 
from a deep sleep as the clocks struck ten. I sat up in bed, 
uncertain in the eifort of wit-gathering if night had not 
given me a dream rather than an experience, a chance play 
of the brain’s imagining, and not a living knowledge of true 
scenes and strange men. For in this mood does nature often 
play with us, tricking us to fine thoughts as we lie dream- 
ing, or creating such shows of life as we slumber, that in 
our first moments of wakefulness we do not detect the 
cheat or reckon with the phantoms. I knew not for some 
while, as I lay back listening to the hum of busy Paris, 
if the Perfect Fool had or had not told me anything, if 
we had gone together to a house near the Eue Joubert, 
or if we had remained in the hotel, if he had begged of 
me some favor, or if I had dreamed it. All was but a 
confused mind-picture, changing as a kaleidoscope, blurred, 
shadowy. It might have remained so long, had I not, 
in looking about the room, become aware that a letter, 
neatly folded, lay on the small table at my bedside. It 
was the letter which brought the consciousness of reality; 
and in that moment I knew that I had not dreamed 
but lived the curious events of the night. But these are 
the words which Martin Hall wrote: 

*‘H6tel Scribe. Seven a. m. — I leave in ten minutes, and 
write you here my last word. We shall sail from Dieppe at 
midnight. Do not forget to cross to Plymouth if you have any 
friendship for ma I look to you alone. Martin Hall.” 


28 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


He had left Paris then, and set out upon his great risk. 
The man’s awe-inspiring courage, his immense self-reliance, 
his deep purpose, were marked strongly in those few simple 
words, and I had never felt so great an admiration for him. 
He looked to me alone, and assuredly he should not look in 
vain. I would follow him to Pljrmouth, losing no moment 
in the act; and I resolved then to go further if the need 
should be, and to search for him in every land and on every 
sea, for he was a brave man whose like I had not often 
known. 

I dressed in haste with this intention, and went to 
dejeuner in our private room below. Koderick was there, 
sleepy over his bottle of bad Bordeaux, and Mary, who 
insisted on taking an English breakfast, was in the height 
of a dissertation on Parisian tea. 

^^Did you ever see anything so feeble?” she said, being 
fond of Eoderick’s speech mannerisms, and often mimicking 
them. ^Tsn’t it pretty awful?” and she poured some from 
her spoon. 

Tretty awful’ is not the expression for a polite young 
woman,” replied Eoderick, with a severe yawn; ^‘anyone 
who comes to Paris for tea deserves what he gets.” 

^^Yes, and what he gets Takes the biscuit.’ ” 

^^Mary!” 

^‘Well, you always say. Takes the biscuit;’ why 
shouldn’t I?” 

^‘Because, my child, because,” said Eoderick, slowly and 
paternally, ^T)ecause — why, here’s Mark. Hallo! you’re a 
pretty fellow; I hope you enjoyed yourself last night.” 

“Exceedingly, thanks; in fact I may say that I had a 
most delightful evening with men who suited me to the — 
tea — thank you, Mary! I’ll take a cup — and now tell me, 
what has he bought you?” 

I thought that a judicious policy of dissimulation was 
the wise course at that time, for I had not then determined 
to share my secret even with Eoderick, as, indeed, by my 
word I was bound not to do until Hall should so wish. In 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


29 


this intent I hid all my serious moods, and continued the 
pleasant chatter. 

Mar}' had soon poured out a cup of the decoction which 
Frenchmen call tea, an aqueous product, the fluid of 
chopped hay long stewed in tepid water, and then she 
answered: 

^^Let me see, now, what did Eoderick buy me? Oh, yes, 
I remember, he bought me a meerschaum pipe and a walking 
stick!’’ 

what?” I gasped. 

meerschaum pipe, and a walking stick with a little 
man to hold matches on the top of it.” 

Eoderick looked guilty, and admitted it. 

^^You see,” he said in apology, ^^they sold only those 
things at the first place we came to, and you don’t expect 
a fellow to walk in Paris, do you? Now, when I’ve rested 
after breakfast, I suggest that we all make up our minds 
for a long stroll, and get to the Palais Eoyal.” 

^‘Well, that’s about three hundred yards from here, isn’t 
it? Are you quite sure you’re equal to it?” 

He looked at me reproachfully. 

‘TTou don’t want a man to kill himself on his holiday, do 
you? You’re fatally energetic. Now, I believe that the 
science of life is rest, the calm survey of great problems 
from the depths of an armchair. It’s astonishing how easy 
things are if you take them that way; never let anything 
agitate you — I never do.” 

^^No, he don’t, does he, Mary? But about this excursion 
to the Palais Eoyal; I’m afraid you’ll have to go alone, for 
I have just had a letter which calls me back to the yacht. 
It’s awfully unfortunate, but I must go, although I will 
return here in a week, if possible, and pick you up; other- 
wise, you will hear of my movements as soon as I know 
them myself.” 

Somewhat to my astonishment, they both looked at me, 
saying nothing, but evidently very much surprised. Mary’s 
big eyes were wide open with amazement, but Eoderick 


30 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


had a more serious look on his face. He did not question 
me, he did not say a word, but I felt his thought — ‘^You hold 
something back” — and the mute reproach was keen. Per- 
haps some explanation would then have been demanded had 
not another interruption broken the unwelcome silence. 
One of the servants of the hotel entered to tell me that a 
man who wished to speak with me was waiting outside, and 
asked if I would see him there or in the privacy of our 
room. As I could not recall that anyone in Paris 
had any business with me, I said, ^'Send the man here;” 
and presently he entered, when to my intense surprise I 
found him to be no other than one of the ruffians — the 
one called ^Tour-Eyes” by the captain of the company 
I had met on the previous evening. Hot that he seemed 
in any way abashed at the meeting — ^he walked into the 
room with a seaman’s lurch, and steadied himself only 
when he saw Mary. Then he rang an imaginary bell-rope 
on his forehead, and “hitched” himself together, as sailors 
say, looking for all the world like some great dog that 
has entered a house where dogs are forbidden. His first 
words were somewhat unexpected: 

“Oi was priest’s boy in Tipperary, bedad,” said he, and 
then he looked round as if that information should put him 
on good terms with us. 

“Will you sit down, please?” was my request as he stood 
fingering his hat, and looking at Mary as though he had 
seen a vision, “and permit me to ask what the fact of your 
serving a priest in Ireland has to do with your presence here 
now?” 

“That brings us to the point av it, and thanking yer 
honor, it’s meself that ain’t aisy on them land-craft which 
don’t carry me cargo on an even keel at all, so I’ll be 
standin’ with no offense to the Missy, sure, an’ gettin’ to 
the writin’ which is fur yer honor’s ear alone as me in- 
struckthshuns goes.” 

He rang the bell-rope over his right eye again, and gave 
me a letter, well written on good paper. I watched him as 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


31 


I read it, and saw that in a power of eye that was astound- 
ing, he had fixed one orb upon Mary and one upon the 
ceiling, and that the two objects shared his gaze, while his 
body swayed as though he was unaccustomed to balance 
himself upon a fair fioor. But I read his letter, and write 
it for you here: 

“Captain Black presents his compliments to Mr. Mark 
Strong, whom he had the pleasure of receiving last night, 
and regrets the reception which was offered to him. Captain 
Black hopes that it will be his privilege to receive Mr. Strong 
on his yacht La France, now lying over against the American 
vessel Portland, in Dieppe harbor, at 11 to-night, and to extend 
to him hospitality worthy of him and his host.” 

Now, that was a curious thing, indeed. Not only did it 
appear that my pretense of being Hall’s partner in trade 
was completely unmasked by this man of the Eue Joubert; 
but he had my name — and, by his tone of writing, it was 
clear that he knew my position, and the fact that I was no 
trader at all. Whether such knowledge was good for me, I 
could not then say; but I made up my mind to act with 
cunning, and to shield Hall in so far as was possible. 

^^Did your master tell you to wait for any answer?” I 
asked suddenly, as the seaman brought his right eye from 
the direction of the ceiling and fixed it upon me; and he 
said: 

^^Is it for the likes of me to be advisin’ yer honor? ^Sure,’ 
says he, fif the gentleman has the moind to wroite he’ll 
wroite, if he has the moind to come aboard me — ^meanin’ 
his yacht — he’ll come aboard; and we’ll be swimming in 
liquor together as gents should. And if so be as the gen- 
tleman’ (which is yer honor), says he, Vill condescend to 
wipe his fate on me cabin shates, let him be aboard at 
Dieppe afore seven bells,’ says he, ^and we’ll shame the ould 
divil with a keg, and heave at daybreak’ — which is yer 
honor’s pleasure, or otherwise, as it’s me juty to larn!” 

It needed no very clever penetration on my part to read 
danger in every line of this invitation — not only danger to 
Q 


32 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


myself, who had been dragged by the heels into the busi- 
ness, but danger to Hall, whose disguise could scarce be 
preserved when mine was unmasked. And yet he had left 
Paris, and even then, perhaps, was in the power of the 
man Black and his crew! What I could do to help him, I 
could not think; but I determined if possible to glean some- 
thing from the palpably cunning rogue who had come on 
the errand. 

^Tll give you an answer to this in a minute,” said I; 
^^mean while, have a little whisky? A seaman like yourself 
t doesn^t thrive on cold water, does he?” 

“Which is philosophy, yer honor — for could wather 
never warmed any man yet — ^me respects to the young lady” 
— ^here he looked deep into his glass, adding slowly, and as 
if there was credit to him in the recollection, “Oi was 
priest’s boy in Tipperary, bedad” — and he drank the half 
of a stiff glass at a draught. 

“Do you find this good weather in the channel?” I 
inquired suddenly, looking hard at him over the table. 

He made circles with his glass, and turned his eyes upon 
Mary, before he answered; and when he did, his voice died 
away like the fall of a gale which is tired. “Noice weather, 
did ye say — ^by the houly saints, it depends.” 

“On what?” I asked, driving the question home. 

“On yer company,” said he, returning my gaze, “and 
yer sowl.” 

“That’s curious!” 

“Yes, if ye have one to lose, and put anny price on 
it.” 

His meaning was too clear. 

“Tell your master, with my compliments,” I responded, 
“that I will come another time — I have business in Paris 
to-day!” 

He still looked at me earnestly, and when he spoke 
again his voice had a fatherly ring. “If I make bold, it’s 
yer honor’s forgiveness I ask— but, if it was me that was 
in Paris I’d stay there,” and putting his glass down 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


33 


quickly, he rolled to the door, fingered his hat there for one 
moment, put it on awry, and with the oft-repeated state- 
ment, ‘^Oi was priest’s boy in Tipperary, bedad,” swayed 
out of the room. 

When he was gone, the others, who had not spoken, 
turned to me, their eyes asking for an explanation. 

^^One of Hall’s friends,” I said, trying to look uncon- 
cerned, ^The mate on the yacht La France — the vessel he 
joins to-day.” 

Roderick tapped the table with his fingers; Mary was 
very white, I thought. 

^^He knows a queer company,” I added, with a grim 
attempt at jocularity, ^They’re almost as rough as he is.” 

^^Do you still mean to sail to-night?” asked Roderick. 

“I must; I have made a promise to reach Plymouth 
without a moment’s delay.” 

^^Then I sail with you,” said he, being very wide-awake. 

^^Oh, but you can’t leave Paris; you promised 
Mary!” 

^^Yes, and I release him at once,” interrupted Mary, the 
color coming and going in her pretty cheeks. ‘T shall sail 
from Calais to-night, with you and Roderick.” 

^Tt’s very kind of you — but — you see ” 

^^That we mean to come,” added Roderick quickly. ^^Go 
and pack your things, Mary; I have something to say to 
Mark.” 

We were alone, he and I, but there was between us the 
first shadow that had come upon our friendship. 

‘Well,” said he, “how much am I to know?” 

“What you choose to learn, and as much as your eyes 
teach you — it’s a promise, and I’ve given my word on it.” 

“I was sure of it. But I don’t like it all the same — I 
distrust that fool, who seems to me a perfect madman. 
He’ll drag you into some mess, if you’ll let him. I suppose 
there’s no danger yet or you wouldn’t let Mary come?” 

“There can be no risk now, be quite sure of that — we 


34 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


are going for a three days’ cruise in the channel, that is 
all.” 

^^All you care to tell me — well, I can’t ask more; what 
time do you start?” 

^^By the club train. I have two hours’ work to do yet, 
but I will meet you at the station, if you’ll bring my 
bag ” 

^^Of course — and I can rest for an hour. That always 
does me good in the morning.” 

I left him so, being myself harassed by many thoughts. 
The talk with Black’s man did not leave me any longer in 
doubt that Hall had gone to great risk in setting out with 
the ruffian’s crew; and I resolved that if by any chance it 
could be done I would yet call him back to Paris. For this 
I went at once to the office of the police, and laid as much 
of the case before one of the heads as I thought needful to 
my purpose. He laughed at me; the yacht La France 
was known to him as the property of an eccentric American 
millionaire, and he could not conceive that anyone might 
be in danger aboard her. As there was no hope from him, 
I took a fiacre and drove to the embassy, where one of the 
clerks heard my whole story; and while inwardly laughing 
at my fears, as I could see, promised to telegraph to a friend 
in Calais, and get my message delivered. 

I had done all in my power, and I returned to the Hotel 
Scribe; but the others had left for the station. Thither I 
followed them, instructing a servant to come to me at the 
Gare du Nord if any telegram should be sent; and so 
reached the train, and the saloon. It was not, however, 
until the very moment of our departure that a messenger 
raced to our carriage and thrust a paper at me; and then 
I knew that my warning had come too late. The paper 
said: 


La France has sailed, and your friend with her.’ 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


35 


CHAPTEE lY. 

A STRANGE SIGHT ON THE SEA. 

It was on the morning of the second day; three bells in 
the watch; the wind playing fickle from east by south, and 
the sea agold with the light of an August sun. Two points 
west of north to starboard I saw the chalky cliffs of the 
Isle of Wight faint through the haze, but away ahead the 
channel opened out as an unbroken sea. The yacht lay 
without life in her sails, the flow of the swell beating lazily 
upon her, and the great mainsail rocking on the boom. We 
had been out twenty-four hours, and had not made a couple 
of hundred miles. The delay angered every man aboard 
the Celsis, since every man aboard knew that it was a mat- 
ter of concern to me to overtake the American yacht, La 
France, and that a life might go with long-continued failure. 

As the bells were struck, and Piping Jack, our boat- 
swain — they called him Piping Jack because he had a 
sweetheart in every port from Plymouth to Aberdeen, and 
wept every time we put to sea — piped down to breakfast, 
my captain betrayed his irritation by an angry sentence. 
He was not given to words, was Captain York, and the 
men knew him as ^'The Silent Skipper;’^ but twenty-four 
hours without wind enough to ^^blow a bug,’’ as he put it, 
was too much for any man’s temper. 

tell you what, sir,” he said, sweeping the horizon 
with his glass for the tenth time in ten minutes, ^^this 
American of yours has taken the breeze in his pocket, and 

may it blow him to 1 beg your pardon, I did not see 

that the young lady had joined us.” 

But Mary was there, fresh as a rose dipped in dew, and 


36 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


as Eoderick followed her up the companion ladder, we held 
a consultation, the fifth since we left Calais. 

^^t’s my opinion,’^ said Eoderick, ^^that if those men of 
yonrs had not been ashore on leave, York, and we could 
have sailed at midnight, we should have done the business 
and been in Paris again by this time.” 

^‘It’s my opinion, sir, that your opinion is not worth a 
cockroach,” cried the Captain, quite testily; ^^the men have 
nothing to do with it. Look above; if you’ll show me how 
to move this ship without a hatful of wind. I’ll do it, sir,” 
and he strutted off to breakfast, leaving us with Dan, the 
forward look-out. 

Dan was a grand old seaman, and there wasn’t one of us 
who didn’t appeal to him in our difficulties. 

^^Do you think it means to blow, Dan?” I asked, as I 
offered him my tobacco-pouch; and Mary said earnestly: 

^^Oh, Daniel, I do wish a gale would come on!” 

‘^Ay, Miss, and so do many of us; hut we can’t he 
making wind no more’n we can make wittals — and excusing 
me. Miss, it ain’t Daniel, not meaning no disrespect to the 
other gent, whose papers was all right, I don’t doubt, hut 
my mother warn’t easy in laming, and maybe didn’t know 
of him — it’s Dan, Miss, free-and-easy like, hut nat’ral.” 

^‘Well, Dan, do you think it will blow? Can’t you 
promise it will blow?” 

^‘Lor, Miss, I’d promise ye anything; hut what is nater 
is nater, and there’s an end on it — not as I don’t say there 
won’t he a hatful o’ wind afore night — why should I? hut 
as for promisin’ of it, why, I’d give ye a hurricane willing — 
or two.” 

We went down to breakfast, the red of sea strength on 
our cheeks; and in the cozy saloon we made short work of 
the coffee and the soles, the great heaps of toast, and the 
fresh fruit. I could not help some gloomy thoughts as I 
found myself on my own schooner again, asking how long 
she would he mine, and how I should suffer the loss of her 
when all my money was spent. These were cast off in the 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


37 


excitement of the chase, and came only in the moments of 
absolute calm, when all the men aboard fretted and fumed, 
and every other question was, ^^Isn’t it beginning to blow?” 

The morning passed in this way, a long morning, with 
a sea like a mirror, and the sun as a great circle of red fire 
in the haze. Hour after hour we walked from the fore- 
hatch to the tiller, from the tiller to the fore-hatch, varying 
the exercise with a full inspection of every craft that showed 
above the horizon. At eight bells we lay a few miles 
farther westward, the island still visible to starboard, but 
less distinct. At four bells, when we went to lunch, the 
heat was terrible below, and the sun was terrible on deck; 
but yet there was not a breeze. At six bells some dark and 
dirty clouds rose up from the south, and twenty hands 
pointed to them. At ^^one bell in the first dog” the clouds 
were thick and the sun was hidden. Half an hour later 
there was a shrill whistling in the shrouds, and the rain be- 
gan to patter on the deck, while the booms fretted, and we 
relieved her in part of her press of sail. When the squall 
struck us at last, the channel was foaming with long lines 
of choppy seas; and the sky southward was dark as ink. 
But there was only joy of it aboard; we stood gladly as the 
Celsis heeled to it, and rising free as an unslipped hound, 
sent the spray fi3dng in clouds, and dipped her decks to the 
foam which washed her. 

During one hour, when we must have made eleven 
knots, the wind blew strong, and was fresh again after that; 
so that we set the foresail unreefed, and let the great main- 
sail go not many minutes later. The swift motion was 
an ecstasy to all of us, an unbounded delight; and even the 
skipper softened as we stood well out to sea, and looked on 
a great continent of clouds underlit with the spreading 
glow of the sunset, their rain setting up the mighty arched 
bow whose colors stood out with a rich light over the wide 
expanse of the east. Nor did the breeze fall, but stiffened 
toward night, so that in the first bell, when we came up 
from dinner, the Celsis was straining and foaming as she 


38 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


bent under her press of canvas, and it needed a sailor’s 
foot to tread her decks. But of this no one thought, 
for we had hardly come above when we heard Dan 
hailing: 

Yacht on the port bow.’’ 

^^What name?” came from twenty throats. 

^^La France,” said Dan, and the words had scarce left his 
lips when the skipper roared the order: 

^‘Stand by to go about!” ' 

For some minutes the words ^^’bout ship” were not 
spoken. The schooner held her course, and rapidly drew 
up with the yacht we had set out to seek. From the first 
there was no doubt about her name, which she displayed in 
great letters of gold above her figure-head. Dan had read 
them as he sighted her; and we in turn felt a thrill of 
delight as we proved his keen vision, watching the big 
cutter, for such she was, heading, not for Plymouth, but 
for the nearer coast. But this was not the only strange 
thing about her course, for when she had made some few 
hundred yards toward the coast, she jibbed round of a sud- 
den, with an appalling wrench at the horse; and there being, 
as it appeared, no hand either at the peak halyards or the 
throat halyards, the mainsail presently showed a great rent 
near the luff, while the foresail had torn free from the bolt- 
ropes of the stay, and was presenting a sorry spectacle as 
the yacht went about, and away toward France again. 

Such a display of seamanship astounded our men. 

^^Close haul, you lubbers; close haul!” roared Dan, in 
the vain delusion that his voice would be heard a quarter 
of a mile away. ‘^Keep down yer ’elm, and close haul — 
wash me in rum if he ain’t cornin’ up again, and there she 
goes, right into it. Shake up, you gibbering fools; luff 
her a bit, and make fast. Did you ever see anythin’ like it 
this side of a Margit steamer?” 

The skipper said nothing, but as the yacht luffed right 
up into the wind again, he groaned as a man who is hurt. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


39 


Piping Jack looked sorrowful too, and said, almost with 
tears in his eyes: 

Axing yer pardon, sir, but hev you got a pair of eyes 
in your head which can make out anything unusual aboard 
there?” 

^^They’re a queer lot, if that’s what you mean, and they 
haven’t got enough seamanship amongst them to run a 
washing tub. Is there anything else you make out?” 

good deal, sir; and, look you, there ain’t a living 
soul on her deck, or may I never see shore again.” 

^^By all that’s curious, you’re right. There isn’t a man 
showing!” 

’Bout ship,” roared the skipper, and every man ran to 
his post, while I touched Captain York on the shoulder and 
pointed to the seemingly deserted and errant yacht. 

But the skipper’s eyes were not those of a ground gazer; 
he needed no aid from me; what others had seen he had 
seen, and he nodded an affirmative to my unspoken 
question. 

^^What do you think it means?” I asked, as we came up 
into the wind, and the men were belaying after close 
hauling for the beat; ^‘^are they hiding from us, or is she 
deserted?” 

But the only answer I got was the one word ‘^Rum,” 
uttered with a jerky emphasis, and taken up by Dan, who 
said: 

^Y'ery rum, and a good many drunk below, or I don’t 
know the taste of it.” 

The obvious fact that the yacht we had sought and run 
down was without living men upon her decks had taken the 
lilt from the seamen’s merry tongues, and a gloom settled 
on us all. Perhaps it was more than a mere surmise, for 
an uncanny feeling of something dreadful to come took 
hold of me, and I feared that, finding the yacht, we had also 
found the devil’s work; .but I held my peace on that, and 
made up my mind to act. 


40 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


^^Skipper,” said I, ^^order a boat out; I’m going aboard 
her.” 

He looked at me and shook his head. 

^^When the iwind falls, perhaps; but now!” and he 
shrugged his shoulders. 

there any sign that the breeze will drop?” 

^^None at present; but I’ll tell you more in an hour. 
Meanwhile,” and here he whispered, ^^get your pistols out 
and say nothing to the men. I shall follow her.” 

His advice was wise; and as the dark began to fall and 
the night breeze to blow fresh, while the yacht ahead of us 
swung here and there, almost making circles about us, we 
hove to for the time and watched her. I begged Mary to 
go below, but she received the suggestion with merriment. 

^^Go below, when the men say there’s fun coming! Why 
should I go below?” 

^^Because it may be serious fun.” 

She took my arm, and linking herself closely to me as to 
a brother, she said: 

^‘Because there’s danger to 3^ou and to Roderick; isn’t 
that it, Mark?” 

‘^Not to us any more than to the men; and there may be 
no danger, of course. It’s only a thought of mine.” 

^^And of mine, too. I shall stay where I am, or Roderick 
will go to sleep.” 

^^What does Roderick say?” 

He had joined us on the starboard side, and was gazing 
over the sea at the pursued yacht, which lay shaking dead 
in the wind’s eye, but Mary’s question upset whatever spec- 
ulation he had entered upon. 

^^I’ve got an opinion,” he drawled, with a yawn. 

^^You don’t say so 

^^The wind’s falling, and it’s getting beastly dark.” 

^Two fairly obvious conclusions; do you think you could 
keep sufficiently awake to help man the boat?— in another 
ten minutes we shall see nothing.” 

^^Do you think I’m a fool, that I’m going to stop here?” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


41 


‘Torgive me, but I’m getting anxious. Martin Hall sailed 
on that yacht; and I promised to help him — ^but there’s no 
need for you to do anything, you know.” 

“Ho need when you are going — pshaw. I’ll fetch my Colt, 
and Mary shall watch us. I don’t think she’s afraid of 
much, are you. Eats?” — he called her “Eats” because they 
were the one thing on earth she feared — and then he went 
below, and I followed him, getting my revolver and my 
oilskins, for I knew that it would be wet work. I had 
scarce reached the deck again when I felt the schooner 
moving; but no break of light showed the place where the 
other was, and the skipper called presently for a blue flare, 
which cast a glowing light for many hundred yards, and 
still left us uncertain. 

“She’s gone, for sure,” said Dan to the men around him, 
for every soul on board, even including old Chasselot — 
called by the men “Cuss-a-lot” — our cook, was staring into 
the thick night; “and I wouldn’t stake a noggin that her 
crew ain’t cheated the old un at last an’, gone down singing. 
It’s mighty easy to die with your head full o’ rum, but I 
don’t go for to choose it meself, not particler.” 

Billy Eightbells, the second mate, was quite of Dan’s 
opinion. The looks of the others told me then that they 
began to fear the adventure. Billy was the first really to 
give expression to the common sentiment. 

“Making bold to speak,” he said, “it were two years 
ago come Christmas as I met something like this afore, down 
Eio way 

“Was it at eight bells, Billy?” asked Mary mischievously. 
She knew that all Billy’s yarns began at eight bells. 

“Well, I think it were, mum, but as I was saying ” 

“Flash again,” said the skipper, suddenly interrupting 
the harangue, and as the blue light flashed we saw right 
ahead of us the wanderer we sought; but she was bearing 
down upon us, and there was fear in the skipper’s voice 
when he roared: 

“For God’s sake, hard a-starboard!” 


42 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


The helm went over, and the yacht loomed up black, as 
our own light died away; and passed us within a cable’s 
length. What lift of the night there was showed us her 
decks again; but they were not deserted, for as one or two 
aboard gave a great cry, I saw the white and horridly 
distorted face of a man who clung to the main shrouds — 
and he alone was guardian of the wanderer. 

The horrid vision struck my own men with a deadly 
fearing. 

^^May the Lord help us!” said Dan. 

‘'And him!” added Piping Jack solemnly. 

“Was he alive, d’you think?” asked Dan. 

“It’s my opinion he’d seen something as no Christian 
man ought to see. Please God, we all get to port again!” 

“Please God!” said half a dozen; and their words had 
meaning. 

For myself, my thoughts were very different. That 
vision of the man I had left well and hopeful and strong not 
three days since v/as terrible to me. A brave man had gone 
to his death, but to what a death, if that agonized face and 
distorted visage betokened aught! And I had promised to 
aid him, and was drifting there with the schooner, raising 
no hand to give him help. 

“Skipper,” I cried, “this time we’ll risk getting a boat 
off; I’m going aboard that vessel now, if I drown before I 
return.” Then I turned to the men and said, “You saw 
the yacht pass just now, and you saw that man aboard her 
— he’s my friend, and I’m going to fetch him. Who amongst 
you is coming with me?” 

They hung back for a moment before the stuff that was 
in them showed itself; then Dan lurched out, and said: 

“I go!” 

Billy Eightbells followed. 

“And I,” said he, “if it’s the Old One himself.” 

“And I,” said Piping Jack. 

“And I,” said Planks, the carpenter. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


43 


^^Come on, then, and take your knives in your belts. 
Skipper, put about and show another light.’’ 

He obeyed mechanically, saying nothing; but he was a 
brave man I knew. It was our luck to find that the boat 
went away from the davits with no more than a couple of 
buckets of water in her; and in two minutes’ time the men 
were giving way, and we rose and fell to the still choppy 
sea, while the green spray ran from our oilskins in gallons. 
In this way we made a couple of hundred yards in the 
direction we judged the yacht would turn, and lit a fiash. 
It showed her a quarter of a mile away, jibbing round and 
coming into the wind again. 

shall catch her on the tack if she holds her bear- 
ing,” said Dan, ^^and be aboard in ten minutes.” 

^mat then?” said Billy. 

^^Ay, what then?” echoed the others. 

‘^But it’s a friend of the guv’nor’s,” repeated Dan, ^^and 
he’s in danger — no common danger, neither. Please God, 
we all get to port again.” 

^Tlease God!” they responded, and Roderick, who sat 
at the tiller with me, whispered: 

never saw men who liked a job less.” 

As the good fellows gave way again, and the boat rode 
easily before the wind, I noticed for the first time that the 
clouds were scattering; and we had not made another cable’s 
length when a great cloud above us showed silver at its 
edges, and opaquely white in its center, through which the 
moon shone. Anon it dissolved, and the transformation 
on the surface of the water was a transformation from the 
dark of storm to the chrome light of a summer moon. 
There, around us, the panorama stretched out: the sea, 
white-waved and rolling; the lights of a steamer to port; of 
a couple of sailing vessels astern; of a fishing fieet away 
ahead, and nearer to the shore. But these we had no 
thought for, since the des-erted yacht was beating up to us, 
and we stood right in her track. 

^^Get a grapnel forward, and look out there,” cried Dan, 


44 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


who was in command; and Billy stood ready, while we 
could hear the swish of the waves against the cutter’s bows, 
and every man instinctively put his hand on his pistol or 
his knife. 

As if to help us, the wind fell away as the schooner came 
up, and she began to shake her sails; making no way as 
she headed almost due east. It seemed a fit moment for 
effort, and Dan had just sung out, ^^give way,” when every 
man who had gripped an oar let go the handle again and 
sat with horror writ on his countenance. For, almost with 
the words of the order, there was the sound as of fierce 
contest, of the bursting of wood, and the spread of flame; 
and in that instant the decks of the yacht were ripped up, 
and sheets of fire rose from them to the rigging above. The 
light of the mighty flare spread instantly over the sea 
about her, and far away you could look on the rolling waves, 
red as waves of fire. A terrible sight it was, and terrible 
sounds were those of the wood rending with the heat, of 
the stays snapping and flying, of the hissing of the flame 
where it met the water. But it was a sight of infinite horror 
to us, because we knew that one who might yet live was a 
prisoner of the conflagration — the one passenger, as it 
seemed then, of the vessel which was doomed. 

^^Give way,” roared Dan again, for the meii sat motion- 
less with terror. ^^Are you going to let him burn? May 
God have mercy on him, for he needs mercy!” 

The words awed them. They shot the long-boat forward; 
and I stood in her stern to observe, if I could, what passed 
on the burning decks. And I saw a sight the like to which 
I pray that I may never see again. Martin Hall stood at 
the main shrouds, motionless, volumes of flame around 
him, his figure clear to be viewed by that awful beacon. 

^^Why doesn’t he jump it?” I called aloud. ^Tf he can’t 
swim, he could keep above until we’re alongside;” and then 
I roared ^^Ahoy!” and every man repeated the cry, calling 
^^Ahoy!” each time he bent to his oar, his voice hoarse 
with excitement. But Martin Hall never moved, his 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


46 


gaunt figure was motionless — the fiames beat upon it, it 
did not stir; and we drew near enough anon and knew 
the worst. 

“Devils’ work, devils’ work!” said Dan; “he’s lashed 
there — and he’s dead!” But the men still cried “Ahoy!” 
as they rushed their oars through the water, and were as 
those mad with fiery drink. 

“Easy!” roared Dan. “Easy, for a parcel of stark fools! 
Would you run alongside her?” 

There they lay, for any nearer approach would have been 
perilous, and even in that place where we were, twenty feet 
on the windward side, the heat was nigh unbearable. So 
near were we that I looked close as it might be into the 
dead face of Martin Hall, and saw that the fiends who had 
lashed him there had done their work too well. But I hoped 
in my heart that he had been dead when the end of the 
ship had begun to come, and that it were no reproach to 
me that he had perished; for to save his body from that 
holocaust was work no man might do. 

So did we watch the mounting fire, and the last tack of 
the yacht La France. Saucily she raised her head to a 
new breeze, shook her great sail of flame in the night, and 
scattered red light about her. Then she dipped her burn- 
ing jib as if in salute, and there was darkness. 

“Best to a good ship,” said Dan, in melancholy mood; 
but I said: 

“Best to a friend.” I had known the man whose death 
had come; and when his body went below, I hungered for 
the grip of the hand which was then washed by the channel 
waves. 

“Give way,” I cried to the men, who sat silent in their 
fear of it, and when they rowed again they cried as before, 
“Ahoy!” so strong and vivid was the picture which the 
sea had then put out. 

As we neared our own ship, Boderick endeavored to 
speak to me, but his voice failed, and he took my hand, 
giving it a great grip. Then we came aboard, where Mary 


46 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


waited for us with a white face, and the others stood silent; 
hut we said nothing to them, going below. There I locked 
myself in my own cabin, and though fatigue lay heavy on 
me, and my eyes were clouded with the touch of sleep, I 
took Martin Hall’s papers from my locker, and lighted the 
lamp to read them through. 

But not without awe, for they were a message from the 
dead. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


47 


CHAPTER V. 

THE WRITING OF MARTIN HALL. 


✓ 


The manuscript, which was sealed on its cover in many 
places, consisted of several pages of close writing, and of 
sketches and scraps from newspapers — Italian, French and 
English. The sketches I looked at first, and was not a 
little surprised to see that one of them was the portrait of 
the man known as ^‘Roaring John,^’ whom I had met at 
Paris in the strange company; while there was with this 
a blurred and faint outline of the features of the seaman 
called ^^Four-Eyes,” who had come to me at the Hotel 
Scribe with the bidding to go aboard La France. But 
what, perhaps, was even more difficult to be understood was 
the picture of the great hull of what I judged to be a 
warship, showing her a-building, with the work yet 
progressing on her decks. The newspaper cuttings I 
deemed to be in some part an explanation of these sketches, 
for one of them gave a description of a very noteworthy 
battle-ship, constructed for a South American republic, 
but in much secrecy; while another hinted that great pains 
had been taken with the vessel, which was built at a mighty 
cost, and on so new a plan that the shipwrights refused to 
give information concerning her until she had been some 
months at sea to prove her. 

All this reading remained enigmatical, of course, and 
as I could make nothing of it to connect it with the events I 
have narrated, I went on to the writing, which was fine and 
small, as the writing of an exact man. And the words upon 
the head of it were these: 


4 


48 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


SOME ACCOUNT OF A NAMELESS WAESHIP, 

OF HER CREW, AND HER PURPOSE. 

Written for the eyes of Mark Strong, by Martin Hall, sometime 
his friend. 


I put from me the sorrow of the thought which the last 
three words brought to me, and read therefrom this history, 
which had these few sentences as its preface: 

“You read these words, Mark Strong, when I am dead; and 
I would ask you before you go further with them to consider 
well if you would wish, or have inclination for, a pursuit in 
which I have lost all that a man can lose, and in which your 
risk, do you take the work upon you, will be no less than mine 
was. For if you read what is written here, and have in you 
that stuff which cannot brook mystery, and is fired when 
mystery also is danger, I know that you will venture upon 
this undertaking at the point where death has held my hand; 
and that by so doing you may reap where I have sown. And 
with this, think nor act in any haste lest you lay to my charge 
that which may befall you in the pursuit you are about to 
begin.” 

I read on, for the desire to do justice to Martin Hall was 
strong upon me at the very beginning of it. 

From that place the story was in great part autobio- 
graphical, but in no sense egotistical. It was, as you shall 
see, the simple narration of a man sincere in his dreaming, 
if he did dream; logical in his madness, if he were mad. 
And this was his story as first I read it: 

^^Having well considered the warning which is the super- 
scription of this record, you have determined to continue 
this narrative, I do not doubt; for I judge you to be a man 
who, having tasted the succulent dish of curiosity, will not 
put it away from you until you have eaten your fill. I will 
tell you, therefore, such a part of my life as you should 
know when you come to ask yourself the question, Ts this 
man a fool or an imbecile, a crack-brained faddist or the 
victim of hallucination?’ This question should arise at a 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


49 


later stage, and I beg yon not to put it until you have read 
every word that I have written here. 

was born in Liverpool, thirty-three years ago, and 
was educated for a few years at the well-known institute in 
that city. They taught me there that consciousness of 
ignorance which is half an education; and being the son 
of a man who starved on a fine ability for modeling things 
in clay, and plaster-molding, I went out presently to make 
my living. First to America, you doubt not, to get the 
experience of coming home again; then to the Cape, to 
watch other men dig diamonds; to Home, to Naples, to 
Genoa, that I might know what it was to want food; to 
South ’ America as an able seaman; to Australia in the 
stoke-hole of a South Sea liner; home again to my poor 
father, who lay dead when I reached Liverpool. 

'T was twenty-two years old then, and glutted with. life. 
I had no relation living that I knew of; no friend who was 
not also a plain acquaintance. By what chance it was I 
cannot tell, but I drifted like a living log into the detective 
force of my city, and after working up for a few years 
through the grades, they put me on the landing-stage at 
Liverpool, to watch for men who wished to emigrate be- 
cause they had no opinion of the police force there. It was 
miserable employment, but educating, for it taught me to 
read faces that were disguised, old men become beardless, 
young men made old at the touch of a coiffeur. I suppose 
I had more than common success, for when I had been so 
employed for five years I was sent to London by our people, 
and there commanded to go to the admiralty and get new 
instructions. Eegard this, please, as the first mark in this 
record I am making. Of my work for our own people I 
may not tell even you, since I engaged upon it under 
solemn bond of secrecy; but I can indicate that I was sent 
to Italy to pick up facts in the dockyards there, and that 
our people relied on my gifts of disguise, and on my knowl- 
edge of Italian, learnt upon Italian ships and in Italian 
ports. In short, I was expected to provide plans and 


50 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


accounts of many things material to our own service, and I 
entered on the business with alacrity, gained admittance to 
the public dockyards, and knew in a twelvemonth all that 
any man could learn who had his wits only to guide 
him, and as much of those of other men as he could 
pick up. 

^^But I imagine your natural impatience, and your 
mental exclamation, ^What has all this rigmarole to do 
with me — ^how does it alfect this pre^tended narrative?’ 
Bear with me for a moment when I tell you that it is vital to 
my story. It was in Italy during my second year of work 
that I had cause to he at Spezia, inspecting there a new 
type of gunboat about which there was much talk and 
many opinions. I have no need to tell you, who have not 
the bombastic knowledge of a one-city man, that at Spezia 
is to he found all that is great in the naval life of Italy; on 
the grand forts of the hay which received the ashes of 
Shelley are her finest guns; on the glorious hills which arise 
above her limpid blue waters are her chief fortifications. 
There, at the feet of the hills where grows the olive, and 
where the vine matures to luxurious growth, you will find 
in juxtaposition with Nature’s emblems of peace the store- 
houses of the shot and shell which one day shall sow the sea 
and the land with blood. Amongst these fortifications, 
amidst these adamantine terraces and turrets my work lay; 
hut the most part of it was done in the dockyards, both in 
the yards which were the property of the Government and 
in the private yards. My recreation was a rare cruise to 
the lovely gulfs which the hay embosoms, to the Casa di 
Mare, to Fezzano, to the Temple of Venus at the Porto 
Venere; or a walk when there was golden-red light on the 
clustering vines, and the Apennines were capped with the 
spreading fire which falls on them when the sun passes low 
at twilight. Many an hour I stood above the old town, 
asking, why a common cheat of a spy, as I reckoned myself, 
should presume to find other thoughts when breathing that 
air laden of solitude; hut they came to me whether I would 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


51 


or no; and it was often on my mind to throw over the 
whole business of prying, and to set out on a work which 
should achieve something, if only a little, for humanity. 
That I did not follow this impulse, which grew upon me 
from day to day, is to be laid to the charge of one of those 
very walks upon the hill-side about which I have been 
telling you. It was an evening late in the year, and the 
sun was just setting. I watched the changing hues of the 
peaks as the light spread from point to point; watched it 
reddening the sea, and leaving it black in the shadows; 
watched it upon the church spires of Spezia, upon the castle 
roof, upon the steel hulls of great ships. And then I saw 
a strange thing, for amongst all the vessels which were so 
burnished by the invisible hand of Heaven, I saw one that 
stood out beyond them all, a great globe, not of silver, but 
of golden fire. There was no doubt about it at all; I 
rubbed my eyes, I used the glass I always carried with me; 
I viewed the hull I saw lying there from half a dozen 
heights; and I was sure that what I saw was no effect of 
evening light or strange refraction. The ship I looked on 
was built either of brass, or of some alloy of brass, as it 
seemed to me, for the notion that she could be plated with 
gold was preposterous; and yet the more I examined her, 
the more clearly did I make out that her hull was con- 
structed of a metal infinitely gold-like, and of so beautiful a 
color in the reddened stream which shone upon it that the 
whole ship had the aspect of a mirror of the purest gold I 
had ever seen. 

“The sudden fading of the light behind the hills shut 
the vision — I could not call it less — from my eyes. The 
dark fell, and the vines rustled with the cold coming of 
night. I returned to the town quickly, and neglecting any 
thought of dinner, I went straight to the sea-front and 
began, if I could, to find where the water lay wherein this 
extraordinary steamer was docked. I had taken the bear- 
ings of it from the hills, and I was very quickly at that spot 
where I thought to have seen the strange vessel. There, 


52 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


truly enough, was a dock in which two small coasting steam- 
ers were moored, hut of a sign of that which I sought there 
was none. I should have had the matter out there and 
then, searching the place to its extremity; hut I had not 
been at my work ten minutes when I knew that I was 
watched. A man, dressed as a rough sailor, and remark- 
able for the hideousness of his face and a curious malforma- 
tion of one tooth, lurked behind the heaps of sea-lumber, 
and followed me from point to point. I did not care to 
have any altercation, so I left the matter there; but, being 
determined to probe the mystery to the very bottom, 
I returned in a good disguise of a common English seaman 
on the following evening, and again entered the dockyard. 
The same man was watching, but he had no suspicion 
of me. 

^Any job going I asked, and the question seemed to 
interest him. 

T reckon that depends on the man,’ he replied, stick- 
ing his hands deep into his pockets, and squirting his filthy 
tobacco all over the timber about. ‘What’s a little wizen 
chap like you good for, except to get yer neck broken?’ 

“ ‘All in my line,’ I answered jauntily, having fixed my 
plan; ‘I’m starving amongst these cursed cut-throats here, 
and I’m ready for anything.’ 

“ ‘Starving, are you! Then blarm me if you shan’t earn 
your supper. D’y’see that four feet of bullock’s fat and 
nigger working at them iron pins in the far corner?’ — lie 
pointed to a thick-set, dark and burly seaman working in 
the way he had described — ‘go and stick yer knife in him, 
and I’m good for a bottle — ^two, if you like, you darned 
little shootin’ rat of a man;’ and he clutched me with his 
great paw and shook me until rny teeth chattered again. 
But his look was full of meaning, and I believe that he 
wished every word he said. 

“‘Stick your knife into the man yourself,’ I replied, 
when I was free of him, ‘you great Yankee lubber — for 
another word I’d give you a taste of mine now.’ 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


53 


looked at me as I stood making this poor mock of 
a threat, and laughed till he rang up the hill-sides. Then 
he said: 

‘You’re my sort; I reckon I know your flag. Out with 
it, and we’ll pour liquor on it, I guess; for there ain’t no 
foolin’ you — no, by thunder! You’re just a daisy of a man, 
you are; so come along and let the nigger be. As for 
hurtin’ of ’im — why, so help me blazes, he’s my pard, he is, 
and I love him like my own little brother what died of 
lead-poisonin’ down Sint Louis way. You come along, you 
little cuss, and see if I don’t make you dance — oh, I 
reckon!’ 

‘T take these words from my note-book, and write them 
out for you, to give you some idea of the class of man I 
met with first on this adventure. More of his nice language 
I do not intend to trouble you with; but will say that I 
drank with him, and later on with his companions, about as 
fine a dozen of self-stamped rascals as ever I wish to see. 
Next day I came again to the dockyard, for the conversation 
of the previous evening had convinced me beyond doubt 
that I was at the foot of a mystery, and, to my delight, I got 
employment from the chief of the gang, named ‘Roaring 
John’ by his friends — and was soon at work on the simple 
and matter-of-fact business of cutting planks. This gave 
me an entry to the dockyard — all I wished at the moment. 

“Now, you may ask, ‘Why did you take the trouble to 
do all this from the mere motive of curiosity engendered by 
the strange ship you thought you saw from the hills?’ I 
will tell you briefly. The fact of my being watched when 
I entered the dock convinced me that there was something 
there which no stranger might see. That which no stranger 
may see in a foreign yard spells also the word money. If 
there was any information to be got in that dock, I could 
sell it to my own Government, or to the first Government in 
Europe I chose to haggle with. This reason alone made 
me a hewer of wood amongst foul-mouthed companions, a 
tar-bedaubed loafer in a crew of loafers. 


54 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


^'You see me, then, at the stage when I had got admis- 
sion to the dock, hut had learned nothing of the vessel. It 
is true that I was admitted only to the outer basin, where 
the coasting steamers lay, and that the man ^Eoaring J ohn’ 
threatened me with all the curses he could command if I 
passed the gate which opened into the dock beyond; hut 
such threats to a man whose business it was to lay hare 
mystery had no more effect on me than the braying of an 
ass in a field of clover. Minute by minute and hour by 
hour I waited my opportunity. It came to me on the morn- 
ing of the eighth day, when, in the poor hope of getting 
something by the loss of sleep, I reached the yard at four 
o’clock, and the gate being unopen, I lurked in hiding until 
the first man should come. He was no other than the one 
who had engaged me; and when he had gone in, about five 
minutes after I had come, he did not close the second door 
after him, there being no men then at their work. I need 
not tell you that I used my eyes well in those minutes, and 
while he was away — this was no more than a quarter of an 
hour — I had seen all I wished to see. There, sure enough, 
lay the most remarkable war-ship I had ever beheld — a 
great, well-armed cruiser, whose decks were bright with 
quick-firing guns, whose lines showed novelty in every inch 
of them. More remarkable than anything, however, was 
the confirmation of that which I had seen from the hills. 
The ship, seemingly, was built of the purest gold. This, of 
course, I knew could not be; hut as the sun got up and his 
light fell on the vessel, I thought that I had never seen a 
more glorious sight. She shone with the refulgent beauty of 
a thousand mirrors; every foot of dier deck, of her turrets, of 
her upper house, made a sheen of dazzling fire; the points 
of her deck lights were as beacons, all lurid and a-gold. So 
marvelous, truly, was her aspect, that I forgot all else hut it, 
and stood entranced, marveling, forgetful of myself and 
purpose. The fiash of a knife in the air and a fearful oath 
brought me to my senses to know that I was in the grasp of 
the man ‘Roaring John.’ 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


55 


^Curse you for a small-eyed cheat! what are you doing 
here?’ he asked, shaking me and threatening every minute 
to let me feel his steel; Vhat are you doing here, you little 
cat of a man? Spit it out, or I’m darned if I don’t spit you; 
oh, I guess!’ 

‘^1 should have made some answer in the rough voice I 
always put on in this undertaking, hut a had mishap hefell 
me. The best of my disguise was the thick, hushy hlack 
hair I wore about my face. As the ruffian went to take a 
firmer hold of my collar, he pulled aside a portion of my 
heard, and left my chin clean-shaven beneath as naturally 
it was. The intense surprise of this discovery seemed to hit 
him like a blow. He stepped back with a murderous look 
in his eyes — a look which meant that, if I stayed there to 
deal with him alone, I had not another minute to live. But 
I cheated him again, and, turning on my heel, I fled with all 
the speed I possessed, and got into the street with twenty 
ruffians at my heels, and a hue and cry such as I hope never 
to hear again. 

^^The escape was clever, but I reached my hotel and sat 
down to find expressions equal in power to my folly. Tho 
thought that I, who was a vulgar spy by profession, had 
committed a mistake worthy of a novelist’s policeman, was 
gall and wormwood to me. Yet I was sure that I had cut 
off all hope of returning to the yard; and what information 
I was to get must come by other modes. The nature of 
these I knew not, but I was determined to set out upon a 
visit to Signor Vezzia, who was the builder to whom the 
docks wherein I worked belonged. To him I came as the 
pretended agent of a shipping firm in Yew York, with whom 
I had some little acquaintance, and he gave me audience 
readily. He was very willing to hear me when he learned 
that I was in quest of a builder to lay down steamers for 
the American trade with Italy; and some while we passed 
in great cordiality, so ripe on his part that I ventured the 
other business. 

^By the way. Signor Vezzia, that’s a marvelous battle- 


56 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


ship you havo in your second dock; I have never seen any- 
thing like her before.’ 

spoke the words, and read him as one reads a barome- 
ter. He shrank visibly into his bulb, and the tone of his 
conversation marked a storm. I heard him utter 'Diavolo!’ 
under his breath, and then the mercury of his conversation 
mounted quickly. 

TTes, yes; a curious vessel, quite a special thing, for a 
South American Eepublic, an idea of theirs — ^but you will 
extend me the favor of your pardon, I am busy’ — and in 
his excitement he put his spectacles off and on, and called 
^Giovanni, Giovanni!’ to his head clerk, who made business 
to be rid of me. Clearly, as a piece in the game I was 
playing. Signor Vezzia had made his solitary move. He 
was no more upon my board, miserably void as it was, and 
in despair I mounted to my hill-top again, and spent the 
morning where the vines grew, looking down upon the 
golden ship which was built for ‘a South American Ee- 
public.’ That tale I never believed, for the man’s face 
marked it a lie as he gave it to me; but the mere telling 
of it added piquancy to the dish I had tasted of, and I 
resolved in that hour to devote myself, heart and soul, to the 
work of unraveling the slender threads, even if I lost my 
common employment in the business. The reverie held me 
long. I was roused from it by the sight of a dull vapor 
mounting from the funnel of the nameless ship. She 
was going to sail, then — at the next tide she might leave 
Spezia, and there would be no more hope. I threw a 
word at my dreaming, and hurried from the vines to my 
hotel in the town below. 

^^How you may form opinion that my prospects in this 
abstruse and perplexing chase were not at that time much 
to vaunt. My theories and my acts had led me into a 
mental cul-de-sac, a blind alley, where, in lack of exit, I took 
hold of every straw that the wind of thought set flying. 
Here was the problem at this stage as it then appeared to 
me: Item (1). A ship built of some metal I had no knowl- 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


57 


edge of. Item (2). A ship that shone like a rich sunset 
on a garden lake. Item (3). A ship that was armed to 
the full, as a casual glance told me, with every kind of 
quick-firing guns, and with two ten-inch guns in her turret. 
Item (4). A ruffianly blackguard, to whom the cutting of 
a throat seemed meat and drink, with ten other rogues no 
less deserving, from a murderous point of view, put to 
watch about the ship that no strange eye might look upon 
her. Item (5). The confusion of Signor Vezzia, who made 
a fine tale and said at the same time with his eyes, ^This 
is a lie, and had one; I’m sorry that I have nothing better 
ready.’ Item (6). My own adamantine conviction that I 
stood near by some mystery, which was about to be a big 
mystery, and which would pay me to pursue. ^A fine 
bundle of nonsense,’ I hear you say; ^as silly a fiight of a 
vaporous brain as ever man conceived’ — ^but stay your 
words awhile; remember thai; one who is bred up at the 
keyhole lets himself, if he be wise, be moved by his im- 
pulses and first opinions. He does not quit them until he 
knows them to be false. Instinct told me to go on in this 
work, if I lost all othes?^ if I starved, if I drowned, if I died 
at it. And to go on I meant. 

^^This was my musing at the Albergo, and when it was 
over I laughed aloud at ih. quixotic folly. ^Oh, poor fool,’ 
I said, ^miserable, brain-blinded, groping fool, to talk of 
going on when the ship sails this night, this very night; 
and unless you put agents on in every part of the globe, you 
will never hear of her again. What a fine piece of dreamer’s 
wit is yours! What a bar parlor yarn to tell rustics in 
Somerset! Get up, and mind your own business, go on with 
your common labor, and let the ship and her crew go to the 
devil if they like.’ For the matter of that, this advice 
perforce I had to follow, for I did not possess one single 
clue at that moment; and although I racked my brain for 
one all the afternoon, and went often to the hill-top to see 
if the nameless ship yet lay in the dock, I could pick up no 
new thread, nor light upon any infinitesimal vein of mate- 


58 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


rial. The very want of a point d’appni irritated a brain 
already excited to a fine condition of unrest. Any hour the 
ship might sail; any hour something which would give me 
the name of her owner might come to me — ^but the hours 
went on, and nothing came. I dined, and was no step 
advanced; I smoked cigars in three cafes, and was again 
at the beginning; I visited half a dozen folk I knew, and 
drew no word to help me. At last, mocking the whole 
mystery with a fine English phrase, I said, ‘Let her go!’ 
and I returned to the Albergo and to bed. I had hunted a 
marine covert for two days and had drawn blank. 

“I have said that I went to bed, but it was a poor folly 
of a process, you do not doubt. I lay down, indeed, and 
read Poe’s tales, which I love, an hour or more; then I 
went over the whole business again, raised every point; 
made my brain aflame with speculation; put out the candle; 
lit it again; read more mystery; held out the hand to 
sleep; told sleep I did not want her. You who know me 
will know also how useless are such gamings of man with 
Nature. I could not have slept if a king’s ransom went 
with the sleeping; and so I lay fretful, blameful, scolding 
myself, condoling with myself, vowing the whole problem 
a plague and a cheat. This idle wandering might have 
lasted until dawn, had it not been for my neighbor in the 
room to my left, who began to talk with a low buzz as of a 
night-insect humming in a bed-curtain. The surging of the 
voice amused me; I lay quite still and listened to it. Now 
it rose loud — I gleaned a word, and was pleased; now it 
fell — and I fretted; but anon another voice was added to 
the first, and, if the one had pleased me, the second thrilled 
me. It was the voice of my friend who wished to stab me 
at the dock. 

“Two words spoken by this man brought me to my feet; 
two more to the thin wooden door which divided our rooms, 
as oft you find them divided in cafes through Italy. With 
feverish impatience, I knelt to pry through the keyhole; 
and muttered a big oath when I saw that it was stuffed 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


59 


with paper, and that the sight of the two men was hidden 
from me. But I listened with an ear long trained to listen- 
ing, and, although the men spoke so that few words reached 
me, I remained a whole hour upon my knees, amazed that 
the man should thus he sent by Providence to my very hotel; 
excited with the new sensation of a foot upon the trail. 
The ship had not sailed, then, for here was the ruffian who 
watched her wasting rest in the first hours to hold a parley; 
and, if a parley, with whom? Why, with those who paid 
him for the work, I did not doubt. 

“At the end of an hour the voices ceased, hut there was 
still a movement in the room. That was hushed too; and 
I judged that my neighbor had gone to bed. For myself, I 
had one of two courses before me: either to court sleep and 
wait luck with the sun, or to see there and then what was 
in the room, and by whom it was occupied. You ask, How 
was that possible? but you forget my scurvy trade again. 
In my bag were forbidden implements sufficient to stock 
Clerkenwell. I took from that a brace and bit, and an 
oiled saw. In ten minutes I cut a hole in the partition and 
put my eye to it, waiting first to see if any man moved. 
For the moment my heart quaked as I thought that both 
the fellows had gone, but one look reassured me. A burly, 
black-bearded man sat in a reverie before a dressing-table, 
and I saw that there was spread upon the table a great heap 
of jewels which, at the lowest valuation, must have been 
worth a hundred thousand pounds. And beside the jewels 
was a big bull-dog revolver, close to the man’s hand. 

“The tension of the strange situation lasted for some 
minutes. I had no clear vision through my spy-hole, and 
knew not at the first watching whether the man I saw was 
asleep or awake. A finer inspection of him, made with a 
catlike poise as I knelt crouching at the door, showed me 
that he slept; had fallen to sleep with his fingers amongst 
the jewels — a great, rough dog of a man clutching wealth in 
his dreaming. And he was, then, one of those connected 
with the golden ship in the harbor — the strange ship 


60 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


manned by cut-throats and built for ^a South American 
Republic/ Indeed did the mystery deepen, the problem 
become more profound, every moment that I worked upon 
it. Who was this man? I asked, and why did he sit in an 
Italian hotel fingering jewels, and giving a meeting-place 
at midnight to a common murderer from a dockyard? 
Were the jewels his own? Had he come by them honestly ? 
Had he stolen them? Suggestions and queries poured 
upon me; I felt that, whatever it might be, I would know 
the truth; and I resolved to dare beyond my custom, and 
to learn more of the bearded man and of his gems. 

^^atch me, then, as I knelt for a whole hour at the place 
of observation, and waited for the fellow to awake. It 
must have been well on toward morning when he stirred 
in his chair, and then sat bolt upright. I thought he looked 
to have some tremor of nervousness upon him; clutching 
hastily at the jewels to put them in a great leather case, 
which again he shut in a larger iron box, locking both, and 
placing the key under his pillow. After that he threw off 
his clothes with some impatience, and, leaving the lamp 
which burned upon his dressing-table, he dropped upon his 
bed. For myself, my plan was already contrived; I had 
determined to go to great risk, and to enter the room — 
playing the common cheat again, yet more than the com- 
mon cheat, for that was an enterprise which needed all the 
fine caution and daring which long years of police work had 
taught me. I had not only to ape the housebreaker, but also 
to get the good cunning of a jewel robber — and yet I knew 
that the things I had seen warranted me, from my point of 
view, in doing what I did, and that desperate means alone 
were fit to cope with the situation. 

^'How the new work was quick. Being assured that my 
man slept, I put back with some cold glue, which was 
always in my tool chest, the piece I had cut from the door, 
and then picked the lock with one grip of my small pincers. 
My revolver I carried in the belt at my waist, for my hands 
were occupied with a soft cloth and a bottle of chloroform. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


61 


I had big felt slippers upon my feet, and went straight to 
his bed, where I let him breathe the drug for a few mo- 
ments, and deepened his light sleep until it became heavy 
unconsciousness. In this state I did what I would with 
him, and, having no fear of his awaking, I got at his keys 
and his jewels, and saw what I wished. There, true 
enough, were precious stones of all values: Brazilian dia- 
monds, Cape stones tinged with yellow, yet big and valuable, 
the finer class of Indian turquoise, pink pearls, black pearls 
— all these loosely wrapped in tissue paper; but a magnifi- 
cent parcel, such as you would see only in a West End 
house in London. I must confess, however, that these 
stones interested me but little, for as I delved amongst his 
treasures I brought up at last a necklace of opals and 
diamonds, the first set gems I had discovered; and as I held 
them to the lamp and examined the curious grouping of 
the stones, and the strange Eastern form of the clasp, I 
knew that I had seen the bundle before. The conviction 
was instantaneous, powerful, convincing; yet even with my 
aptitude for recalling names, places, and things, I could not 
in my mind place those jewels. Hone the less was I assured 
that the one solid clue I had yet taken hold of was in my 
keeping; and, as a quick glance round the chamber told me 
no more, I put up the baubles in their case again, replaced 
the key, and quitted the chamber. Do not think, however, 
that I had neglected to mark my man; every line of his face 
was written in my mental notebook, every peculiarity of 
head and countenance, the shape of his arms, above all, the 
mold of the hands, that wonderful index to recognition; 
and henceforth I knew that I could pick him from a hun- 
dred thousand. 

^^When I had done with this business, I lay upon my 
bed, and brought the whole of my recollection hack upon 
the jewels. Where had I seen them? — ^in what circum- 
stances? — ^in whose hands? Again and again I traveled 
old ground, exhumed buried cases, dwelt upon names of 
forgotten criminals, and of big world people. An hour’s 


62 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


intense mental concentration told me nothing; the dark 
of the hour before dawn gave way to the cold breaking of 
morning light, and yet I tossed in an agony of blank and 
futile reasoning. I must have slept from the sheer binding 
of the brain somewhere about that hour, and in my dream- 
ing I got what wakefulness had denied to me. There in 
my sleep was the whole history of the stones written for me. 
I remembered the Liverpool landing-stage; the departure 
of the Star liner. City of St. Petersburg, for New York; 
the arrest of the notorious jewel thief, Carl Reichsmann; 
the discovery of the opal and diamond necklace upon him; 
the restoration of it to — ^to — the brain failed for a moment 
— then with a loud cry of delight, which roused me, I 
pronounced the words; to Lady Hardon, of 202 A, Berkeley 
Square, London. 

^Tt is a ridiculous situation to sit up in bed asking 
yourself if your dream be reality, or your reality be a 
dream; but when I awoke with that name on my lips, the 
joy of the thing was so surpassing that I repeated the name 
again and again, muttering it as I got into my clothes, using 
it all the time I washed, and speaking it aloud when I stood 
before the glass to tie my cravat. Here, I suppose, the 
folly of the whole repetition dawned upon me, for, of a 
sudden, I shut my lips firm and close, and bethought me of 
the man in the next room. What of him? Was he still 
there? I listened. There was no sound, not so much as 
of a heavy sleeper. He had gone, then, and had Lady 
Hardon’s jewels — ^yet Lady Hardon, Lady Hardon — nay, 
but you could never know the sudden and awful emotion 
of that great awakening which came to me in that moment 
when my memory traveled quickly on to Lady Hardon’s 
end; for I remembered then that she went down in the 
great steamer Alexandria, which was lost in the Bay of 
Biscay twelve months before I discovered the golden ship 
in the dockyard at Spezia; and I recalled the fact, known 
world-wide, that her famous jewels, this necklace amongst 
them, had gone with her to her end. Lost, I say; yet 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


63 


that was the account at Lloyd’s; lost with never a soul to 
give a word about her agony; lost hopelessly in the broad 
of the bay. How came it, then, that this man, who knew 
the ruffians in the dockyard below; who seemed a common 
fellow, yet possessed a hundred thousand pounds’ worth of 
jewelry; how came it that he had got that which the world 
thought to be lying on the sands of the bay? You say, 
Tshaw, it was not the same bauble’; that is the obvious 
answer to my theorizing, but in the recognition of historic 
gems a man trained as I was never makes an error. I would 
have staked my life that the jewels were those supposed 
to be under the sea; and, moved to a state of deep excite- 
ment, I left my hotel without breakfast, and mounted to 
the hill-top for tidings of the great vessel. 

^^But she had sailed, and the dock which had held her 
was empty. 

‘^This discovery did not daunt me, for I had expected it. 
I should have been surprised if she had been at her berth; 
and the fact that she had weighed under cover of night 
fell in so well with my anticipation that I waited only to 
ascertain officially what ships had left Spezia during the 
past twenty-four hours. They told me at the Customs 
that the Brazilian war vessel built by Signor Vezzia weighed 
at three a. m.; but more I could not learn, for these men 
had evidently been well bribed, and were as dumb as 
unfeed lawyers. I knew that their information was not 
worth a groat, and hurried back to the Albergo to assure 
myself that my neighbor with the necklace had sailed also. 
To my surprise, he was at breakfast when I arrived at the 
hotel; and so one great link in my theoretic chain snapped 
at the first test. As he had not sailed with the others, he 
could have no direct connection with the nameless ship, 
no nautical part or lot with her. But what was he, then? 
That I meant to know as soon as opportunity should serve. 

* « ^ 


6 


€4 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


have led yon up, Strong, step by step, through the de- 
tails of this work to this point, that you may have the facts 
unalloyed as I have them, and may construct your history 
from this preamble as I have constructed mine. I am now 
about to move over the ground more quickly. I will quit 
Spezia, and ask you to come with me, after the interval of 
nigh a year — during which no man had known that which 
I now tell you — to London, where, in an hotel in Cecil 
Street, Strand, I was again the neighbor of the man with 
the jewels whom I had taken so daring an advantage of in 
Italy. Let me tell you briefly what had happened in the 
between-time. The day on which the nameless ship left 
the dock, this man — whom, I may say at once, I have always 
met under the name of Captain Black — quitted the town 
and reached Paris. Thither I followed him, staying one 
day in the French capital, but going onward with him on 
the following morning to Cherbourg. There he went 
aboard a small yacht, and I lost him in the Channel. I 
returned at once to Italy, and wired to friends in the police 
force at New York, at London, and San Francisco, and at 
three ports in South America for news (a) of a new war-ship 
lately completed at Spezia for the Brazilian Eepublic; (b) 
of a man known as Captain Black, who left the port of 
Cherbourg in the cutter-yacht La France on the morning 
of October 30th. For nearly twelve months I waited for 
an answer to these questions; but none came to me. To 
the best of my knowledge, the nameless war-ship was never 
seen upon the high seas. I began to ask myself, if she 
existed, how came it that a vessel burnished to the beauty 
of gold had been spoken of none, seen of none, reported 
in no harbor, mentioned in no dispatch? Yet she re- 
mained known but to her crew and to me; and my study 
of shipping lists, gazettes, and papers in all tongues never 
gave me clue to her. Only this, I had such a record of 
navigation as I think man never kept yet before; and I 
marked it as curious, if nothing more, that in the month 
when the cruiser quitted Spezia three ocean-going steamers, 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


65 


eacy carr3ring specie to the value of more than one hundred 
thousand pounds, went down in fair weather, and were 
paid for at Lloyd^s. What folly! you say again. What are 
you going to conclude? I answer only — God grant that I 
conclude falsely — that this terrible thing I suspect is the 
phantom of a too keen imagination. 

^^Now, when no tidings came, either of the ship I sought 
or of the man Black, I did not lose all hope. Indeed, I 
was much occupied making — during a month’s leisure in 
London — a list, as far as that were possible, of all the gems 
and baubles which the dead men and women on the sunken 
steamers had owned. This was a paltry record of bracelets, 
and rings, and tiaras, and clasps, such stuff as any fellow 
of a jeweler may sell; unconvincing stuff, worth no more 
than a near relation for purposes of evidence. There was 
hut one piece of the whole mass that did not come in my 
category — a great box with a fine painting by J ean Petitot 
upon its lid, and a curious circle of jasper all about the 
miniatures. This was a historic piece of bijouterie men- 
tioned as having once been the property of hlecker, the 
French financier; then lost by a Hew York dealer, who 
* was taking it from Paris to Boston in the steamship Cata- 
lania; the ship supposed to have foundered, with the loss 
of all hands, off the Banks of Newfoundland, sixteen days 
after the nameless ship left Spezia. I made a record of 
this trifle, and forgot it until, many months later, a private 
communication from the head of the Hew York Secret 
Service told me that the man I wanted was in London; 
that he was an American millionaire, who owned a house 
on the hanks of the Hudson Eiver; who had great influ- 
ence in many cities, who came to Europe to buy precious 
stones and miniature paintings, a man who was considered 
eccentric by his friends. I kept the notes, and hurried to 
England — for I had been to Geneva some while — and took 
rooms in the hotel where Captain Black was staying. Three 
days after I was disguised as you have seen me, selling him 
miniatures. Within a week, by what steps I need not 


66 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


pause to say, I knew that the jasper box, lost, by report, 
in the steamer Catalania, was under lock and key in his 
bedroom. 

cannot tell you how that discovery agitated me. Here, 
indeed, was my second direct link. The man had in his 
possession an historic and unmistakable casket, which all 
the world believed to be lost in a steamer from which no 
soul had escaped. How I treasured that knowledge! 
Three months the man remained in London; during three 
months he was not thirty hours out of my sight or knowl- 
edge. Day by day, when with him, I consulted such 
shipping information as I could get, and scored another 
mark upon my record when I made sure that no inexplicable 
story from the sea was written while he remained ashore. 
This was perplexing, for a surety. I could not in any way 
connect the man with the nameless ship, and yet he knew 
her crew; he was the one in whose possession the jewels 
were; above all, while he was ashore, there were no disas- 
ters which could not be set down to ocean peril or the act 
of God, as the policies say. This further knowledge held 
me to him with the magnetic attraction of a mystery such 
as I have never known in my life. I resigned my work 
for the Government, and henceforth gave myself, heart 
and soul, to the pursuit of the man. I followed him to 
Paris, to St. Petersburg; I tracked him through France to 
Marseilles; I watched him embark, ^vith three of the ruffians 
I had seen at Spezia, in his yacht again; and within a 
month the yacht was in harbor at Cowes without him; 
while a steamer, bound from the Cape to Cadiz, and known 
to have specie aboard her, went out of knowledge as the 
others had done. Then was I sure, sure of that awful 
dream I had dreamed, conscious that I alone shared with 
that man and his crew one of the most ghastly secrets that 
the deep has kept within her. 

^^The end of my story I judge now that you anticipate. 
Though absolutely convinced myself, I had still lack of the 
one direct link to make a legal chain. I had positively to 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


67 


connect the man Black with the nameless ship, for this I 
had only done so far by pure circumstance. For many 
months I have made no gain in this attempt. Last year 
in Liverpool I sketched in yet another point in my picture. 
I received tidings of the man in that city, and there I did 
trade with him in my old disguise; but he was not alone — 
the crew of ruffians you have known by this time kept 
company with him in that bold and bestial Bohemianism 
you will have witnessed with me. I kept vigil there a 
week, but lost him at the end of that time. When he re- 
appeared in the circles of civilization it was in Paris, but 
two days ago, when I asked you to accompany me. You 
know that I attempted to sail with him on his cruise, and 
your instinct tells you why. If I could, by being two daj^s 
afloat in his company, prove beyond doubt that he used 
his yacht as a pretense; if I could prove that when he left 
port in her he sailed some miles out to sea, and was picked 
up by the nameless ship, my chain was forged, my book 
complete, and I had but to call the Government to the 
work! 

‘^But I have failed, and the labor I have set myself shall 
be done by others, but chiefly, Mark Strong, by you. From 
the valley of the dead, whence soon I must look back, if it 
is to be on a life that has no achievement before God in it, 
I, who have laid down such a life as mine was in this cause, 
urge you upon it. You have youth, and money sufficient 
for the enterprise; you will get money in its pursuit. You 
have no fear of the black After, which is the end of life; 
but, above all, it may come to you as it came to me, that 
there is the Anger of the Almighty God pointing to your 
path of duty. I have lived the life of a common eaves- 
dropper; but, believe me, that in this work I have felt 
the call of humanity, and hoped, if I might live to accom- 
plish it, that the Book of the Good should find some place 
for my name. So may you, when my mantle falls upon you. 
What information I have, you have. The names of my 
friends in the cities mentioned I have written down for 


68 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


you; they will serve you for the memory of my name; but 
he assured at the outset that you will never take this man 
upon the sea. And as for the money which is rightly due 
to the one who rids humanity of this pest, I say, go to the 
Admiralty in London, and lay so much of your knowledge 
before them as shall prevent a robbery of your due; claim 
a fit reward from them and the steamship companies; and, 
as your beginning, go now to the Hudson Eiver — I meant 
to go within a month — and learn there more of the man 
you seek; or, if the time be ripe, lay hands there upon 
him. And may the spirit of a dead man breathe success 
upon you!” 

On the yacht Celsis, lying at Cowes, written in the 
month of August, for Mark Strong. 

« He « * ’K 

When I had put down the papers, my eyes were tear- 
stained with the effort of reading, and the cabin lamp was 
nigh out. My interest in the writing had been so sustained 
that I had not seen the march of daylight, now streaming 
through the glass above upon my bare cabin table. But I 
was burnt up almost with a fever; and the oppressive 
fumes from the stinking lamp seemed to choke me so that 
I went above, and saw that we were at anchor in the Solent, 
and that the whole glory of a summer’s dawn lit the sleeping 
waters. And all the yacht herself breathed sleep, for the 
others were below, and Dan alone paced the deck. 

The first knowledge that I had of the true effect of 
Martin Hall’s narrative was the muttered exclamation of 
this old sailor: 

'^Ye havn’t slept, sir,” said he; ^^ye’re just the color of 
yon ensign!” 

^^Quite true, Dan — ^it was close down there.” 

^^Gospel truth, without a hitch; but ye’re precious bad. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


Q\} 

sir; I never seed a worse figger-’ed, excusin’ the liberty. 
I’d rest a bit, sir.” 

^‘Good advice, Dan. I’ll sleep here an hour, if you’ll 
get my rug from below.” 

I stretched myself on a deck-chair, and he covered my 
limbs almost with a woman’s tenderness, so that I slept and 
dreamt again of Hall, of Captain Black, of the man ‘‘Four- 
Eyes,” of a great holocaust on the sea. I was carried away 
by sleep to far cities and among other men, to great perils 
of the sea, to strange sights; but over them all loomed the 
phantom of a golden ship, and from her decks great fires 
came. When I awoke, a doctor from Southsea was writing 
down the names of drugs upon paper, and Mary was busy 
with ice. They told me I had slept for thirty hours, and 
that they had feared brain fever. But the sleep had saved 
me; and when Mary talked of the doctor’s order that I 
was to lie resting a week, I laughed aloud. 

“You’d better prescribe that for Eoderick,” said I. 
“He’d rest a month. Wouldn’t you, old chap?” 

“I don’t know about a month, old man, but you musn’t 
try the system too much.” 

“Well, I’m going to try it now, anyway, for I start for 
London to-night.” 

“What?” they cried in one voice. 

“Exactly, and if Mary would not mind running on deck 
for a minute. I’ll tell you why, Roderick.” 

She went at the word, casting one pleading look with 
her eyes as she stood at the door, but I gave no sign, and 
she closed it. I had fixed upon a course, and as Roderick, 
dreamingly indifferent, prepared to talk about that which 
he called my “madness,” I took Hall’s manuscript, and 
read it to him. When I had finished, there was a strange 
light in his eyes. 

“Let’s go at once,” he said; and that was all. 


70 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


CHAPTER VI. 

I ENGAGE A SECOND MATE. 

We caught the first train to London, and were at the 
Hotel Columbia by Charing Cross in time for dinner. Mary 
had insisted on her right to accompany us, and, as we 
could find no valid reason why she should not, we brought 
her to the hotel with us. Then, by way of calming that 
trouble, excitement, and expectation which crowded on us 
both, we went to Covent Garden, where the autumn season 
of opera was then on, and listened to the glorious music of 
‘^Orfeo” and the ^^Cavalleria.” Hor did either of us speak 
again that night of Hall or of his death; hut I confess that 
the vision of it haunted my eyes, standing out upon all the 
scenes that were set, so that I saw it upon the canvas, and 
often before me the wind- worn struggle of a burning ship; 
while that awful "Ahoy!” of my own men yet rang in my 
ears. 

When I returned to the hotel I ^vrote two letters, the 
beginning of my task. One was to the Admiralty, the other 
to the office of the Black Anchor Line of American steam- 
ships. I told Roderick what I had done, hut he laughed 
at the idea; so that I troubled him no more with it, awaiting 
its proof. On the next morning, in a few moments of 
privacy between us, he agreed to let me work alone for two 
days, and then to venture on suggestion himself. So it 
came to he that on the next day I found myself standing in 
a meagerly-furnished anteroom at the Admiralty, and there 
waiting the pleasure of one of the clerks, who had been 
deputed to talk with me. He was a fine fellow, I doubt 
uot; had much merit of his faultless how, and great worth 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


71 


in the nicety of his spotless waistcoat, but God never made 
one so dull or so preposterous a blockhead. I see him now, 
rolling up the starved hairs which struggled for existence 
upon his chin, and letting his cuffs lie well upon his bony 
wrists as he asked me, with a floating drawl: 

^^And what service can I do for you?” 

For me! What service could he do for me? I smiled at 
him, and did not disguise my contempt. 

^Gf there is any responsible person here,” I said, with 
emphasis upon the word ^^responsible,” ^‘1 should be glad 
to impart to him some very curious, and, as it seems to me, 
very remarkable, information concerning a war-ship which 
has just left Spezia, and is supposed to be the property of 
the Brazilian Government.” 

'Gt’s very good of you, don’t you know,” he replied, as 
he bent down to arrange his ample trousers; ^^but I fancy 
we heard something about her last week, so we won’t trouble 
you, don’t you know.” And he felt to see if his bow were 
straight. 

^^You may have heard something of the ship,” I answered 
with warmth, ^fl)ut that which I have to communicate is not 
of descriptive, but of national, importance. You cannot 
by any means have learned my story, for there is only one 
man living who knows it.” 

He looked up at the clock a moment as though seeking 
inspiration, but his mind was quite vacant when he replied: 

^Gt’s awfully good of you, don’t you know; we’re so 
frightfully busy this month; if you could come in a 
month’s time 

^Gn a month’s time,” I said, rising with scorn, ^fln a 
month’s time, if you and yours don’t stand condemned 
before Europe for a parcel of fools and incompetents, then 
you’ll send for me, but I’ll see you at blazes flrst. Good 
morning!” 

I was outside the office before his exclamation of surprise 
had passed away; and within half an hour I sat in the 
private room of the secretary to the Black Anchor Steam- 


72 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


ship Company. He was a sharp man of business, keen- 
visaged as a ferret, and restless as a nervous horse long 
reined in. I told him shortly that I had reason to doubt 
the truth of the statement that a war-ship recently built at 
Spezia was intended for the purposes set down to her; 
that I believed she was the property of an American ad- 
venturer whose motives I scarce dared to realize; that I had 
proof, amounting to conviction, that this man possessed 
jewels which were commonly accounted as lost in his firm’s 
steamer Catalania, and that if his company would agree to 
bear the expense, and to give me suitable recompense if I 
succeeded in supporting my conjectures, I would undertake 
to bring him the whole history of the nameless ship within 
twelve months, and also to give him such knowledge as 
would enable him to lay hands on the man called ^^Captain 
Black,” should this man prove the criminal I believed him 
to be. To all which tale he listened, his searching eye fixing 
its stare plump upon me, from time to time; but when I 
had done, he rang the bell for his clerk, and I could see 
that he felt himself in the company of a maniac. So I 
left him, and breathed the breath of liberty again as I 
went back to the hotel, and told Eoderick of the utter and 
crushing failure waiting upon the very beginning of the 
task which Martin Hall had left to me. 

Eoderick was not at all surprised; it seemed to me rather 
that he was glad. 

^^hat did I tell you?” he said, as he sat up on the 
couch, and took the tube of his hookah from his mouth. 
‘^Who will believe such a tale as we are hawking in the 
market-place — selling, in fact, to the highest bidder? If 
a man came to you with the same account, and with no more 
authority to support him than the story of a dead detective 
— who may have lost his wits, or may never have had any 
to lose — would you put down a shilling to see him through 
with the business? Pshaw! my dear old Mark, you, with 
your long head and that horribly critical eye of yours, 
you wouldn’t give him a groat.” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


73 


^^Exactly, I should consider him a dupe or a stark-staring 
madman, but the case is different as it stands. I know — 
I would stake my life on it — that every word Martin Hall 
wrote is true, true as my life itself. I am not so sure that 
you are convinced, though.” 

I awaited his answer, hut it did not come for many 
minutes. He had passed through his momentary enthusi- 
asm, and lay at full length upon the couch, making circles, 
parabolas, and ellipses of fine white smoke, while he fixed 
his gaze upon the frieze of the wall, as if he were counting 
the architraves. 

^^Mark,” he said at last, ‘Vhen we were at Harrow to- 
gether an aged sage impressed upon us the meaning of 
Seneca’s line, ^Veritas odit moras.’ I regard myself at the 
moment in a position of truth; but whether, on calm 
reflection, I believe the whole of your dead friend’s story, 
I’m hanged if I know, and therefore” — ^here he made a 
long pause and smoked violently — ^^and therefore I have 
bought a steamer.” 

^‘You have done what?” 

^^At two o’clock to-day, in your absence, I bought the 
steam yacht Kocket, lately the property of Lord Wilmer, 
now the property of Roderick Stewart, of the Hotel Co- 
lumbia, London.” 

I think I must have laughed sorrowfully at him, as a 
man laughs at a drawing-room humorist, for he continued 
quickly: 

^^Before we go on board her, the yacht will be re- 
christened by Mary — who will stay with her dear maiden 
aunt in our absence — and will be named after your vessel 
Celsis. Her crew will consist of our silent friend. Captain 
York, of his brother as chief mate, and of your men now 
at Portsmouth, with half a dozen more. We shall need 
eight firemen, whom the agents will engage, and three 
engineers, already found, for I have taken on Lord Wilmer’s 
men. Your cook, old ^Cuss-a-Lot,’ will serve us very well 
during the fourteen or fifteen days we shall need to go across 


74 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


the Atlantic, and we want now only a second and third 
officer. As these men will be mixed up with us on the 
quarter-deck, I have told the agents to send them up to see 
you here — so you’ll run your eye over them and tell me if 
they’ll do. I hate seeing people; they bore me, and I mean 
you to take the charge of this enterprise from the very 
beginning. You quite understand?” 

‘^Roderick, my old friend, I’m as blank as a drawing- 
board. Would you mind giving me that yarn from the 
beginning again — and tell me, first, why are we going; then, 
where are we going, and, after that, what has your steamer 
to do with the business of Martin Hall — and, well, and 
what we know?” 

He spoke quickly in answer, and seemed disappointed, 
hate palaver,” he said; ^^and didn’t think to find you 
dense, but you’re growing silly at this business, anyway. 
Now, look here: Hntil you read me that paper in your 
cabin, I don’t know that I ever felt anger against any 
man, but, before God, I’ll bring the man who murdered 
Martin Hall, and Heaven knows how many others, to jus- 
tice, or I’ll never know another hour’s rest. You have 
been talking of Governments and ship-owners for twenty- 
four hours. But what have Governments and ship-owmers 
to do with us? Is it money you want? Well, what’s mine 
is yours; and I’m worth two hundred and fifty thousand 
pounds if I’m worth a shilling. Is it profit of a dead man’s 
work you’re after? Well, then, mark your man, learn all 
about him, run him to his hole; and then, when other people 
besides yourself know his story, as it must be known in a 
few months’ time, put your price on what is your own, and 
don’t fear to recompense yourself. What I want you to 
see is this: For some months, at any rate, we shall get no 
outside help in this matter from any living creature; what 
we’re going to do must be done at our cost, which is my 
cost. And what we’re going to do isn’t to be done at this 
hotel, or on this couch, or in the city; it’s going to be done 
on the high seas, and after that in America, on the Hudson 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


75 


River, where, if Hall he right, is the home of Captain 
Black. It is to the Hudson River that I mean to go now — 
at once — as soon as money and the devil’s own number of 
men can get the steam yacht Celsis ready for sea. And 
at my cost, don’t forget that; though I’m a fool in the 
game, which is yours to make and yours to play, as it has 
been from the beginning, when the dead man chose you to 
finish it and to reckon with the scoundrels now afloat some- 
where between here and the Banks. In his name I ask 
you now to close your hand with me on this bargain, to ask 
no question, to make no protests, and to remember that we 
sail in three days, if possible, and if not in three, then in as 
small a number as will serve to get the steamer ready.” 

What could I say to a story such as this one? I could 
only wring his hand, and feel how hot it was, knowing that 
the same haunting wish to be up and off in the pursuit was 
about him as about me. For half an hour we sat and 
smoked together. In three-quarters I was closeted in the 
room below with Francis Paolo, who had come from the 
agents to seek the berth of second officer to the new yacht 
Celsis. When the servant gave me this man’s name, I had 
some misgiving at its Italian sound, but I remembered that 
Italy is breeding a nation of sailors, and I put off the 
prejudice, and hurried down to see him. I found him to be 
a sprightly, dark-faced, black-haired Italian, apparently no 
more than twenty-five years old; and he greeted me with 
much smoothness of speech. He had served three years as 
third officer to the big steam yacht owned by the noted 
Frenchman, the Marquis de Cluneville; and, as he was 
unmistakably a gentleman, and his discharges were in per- 
fect order, I engaged him there and then for the post of 
second officer to the Celsis, and gave him orders to join her 
at Plymouth, where she lay, as soon as might be. 

But had I known him then as I know him now, I would 
have paid a thousand pounds never to have seen him! 


76 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


CHAPTER VIL 

THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT PURSUIT. 

It was our last day in London. Roderick and I sat down 
to dinner in the hotel, the touch of depression upon us both. 
Mary had left us early in the morning to go to Salisbury, 
where her kinsfolk lived, and I confess that her readiness 
to quit us without protest somewhat hurt me. I imagine 
that I was thinking of it, for I blurted out at last, when we 
had been silent for at least a quarter of an hour: 
suppose she’s arrived by this.” 

^^ITo, I didn’t post her till three,” Roderick replied in 
equal reflective mood. 

^^Didn’t post who?” I asked indignantly. 

^^Why, old Belle, of course. I sent her down with the 
guard to get her out of the way.” 

^^Oh,” I replied, “1 was thinking of Mary, not of your 
dog.” 

^^You always are,” he said; ^^but, between ourselves, I’m 
glad she went. I thought there’d be a fuss; and if it comes 
to a row, as it most probably will, girls are in the way. Don’t 
you think so? But of course you don’t.” 

I didn’t, and made no bones of pretense about it. Mary 
was a child; there was no doubt about that; but, as I 
girded up my courage for this undertaking, I thought how 
much those pretty eyes would have encouraged me, and 
how sweet that childish laugh would have been in mid- 
Atlantic. But there — that’s no part of this story. 

We were going down to Plymouth by the nine o’clock 
mail from Paddington, and there was not a wealth of time 
to spare. So soon as we had dined, I went up to my room 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


77 


to put the small things of need away, meaning to be no 
more than five minutes at the work; but, to my amazement, 
the whole of the place had been turned utterly inside out 
by one who had been there before me. My trunk lay 
upside down; my writing ease was unlocked and stripped, my 
diary was torn and rent, my clothes were scattered. I 
thought at first that a common cheat of a hotel thief had 
been busy snapping up trifles; but I got a shock greater 
than any I had known since Martin Halks death when I 
felt for his writing, which lay secure in its case, and found 
that, while the main narrative was intact, his letters to the 
police at New York, his plans, and his sketches had been 
taken. For the moment the discovery made me reel. I 
could not realize its import, and almost mechanically I rang 
for a servant, who sent the manager to me. 

His perplexity and dismay were no less than mine. 

^^No one has any right to enter your rooms,’^ he said; 
^^and I will guarantee the honesty of my servants unhesi? 
tatingly. Let us ring and ask for the porter.’’ 

The porter was emphatic. 

'^No one has been here after you since yesterday, sir, 
when the Italian gentleman came,” he pleaded. ^^To-day 
he sent a man for a parcel he left here, but I know of no 
one else who has even mentioned your name.” 

^^What is the amount of your loss?” asked the manager, 
as he began to assist me to make things straight, and the 
question gave me inspiration. I made a hurried search, and 
I must have shown feeling, for I was conscious of pallor of 
face and momentary giddiness. 

^^You have lost something of great value, then,” he 
continued, as he watched. And I replied: 

^^Yes, but to myself only. Nothing has been taken from 
the room but papers, which may be worth ten thousand 
pounds to me. They are not worth a penny to anyone 
else.” 

^^Oh, papers only; that is fortunate. It is, perhaps, a 
case for your own private detective.” 


78 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


^^Quite so; I shouldn’t have troubled you had I made a 
search before. I will see to it myself — many thanks.” 

He withdrew with profuse apologies, but I remained 
standing, with all the heart out of me. What, in Heaven’s 
name, d^id it mean? Who had interest to rifle my port- 
folio and take the papers? Who could have interest? 
Who but the man I mean to hunt down? And what did 
he know of me? What, I asked, repeating the word over 
again, and so loudly that those in the neighboring rooms 
must have heard them. 

Was I watched from the very beginning? Had I to cope, 
at the very outset, with a man worth a million, the captain 
of a hand of cut-throats, who stood at no devil’s deed, no 
foul work, no crime, as Martin Hall’s death clearly proved? 
My heart ached at the thought; I felt the sweat dropping 
off me; I stood without thought of any man; the one word 
^Vatched” singing in my ears like the surging of a great 
sea. And I had forgotten Roderick until he hurst into my 
room, a great laugh on his lips, and a telegram in his hand; 
but he stood hack as he saw me, and went pale, as I must 
have been. 

^^Great Scott!” he said, ^^hat’s the matter? — what are 
you doing? We leave in ten minutes. Why aren’t you 
ready?” 

The excuse gurgled in my throat. I stammered out 
something, and began to pack as though pursued by Furies. 
Then I put him off by asking what his humor was about. 
He laughed again at the question. 

^^What do you think?” he said. ^^Mary’s arrived all 
right.” 

^^Oh, that’s good; I hope she’ll like Salisbury,” I replied, 
bundling shirts, collars, and coats into my trunk with 
indiscriminate vigor. 

^TTes, but you don’t wait to hear the end,” he continued, 
with a great roar of laughter; '^she isn’t at Salisbury at all; 
she’s at Plymouth, on hoard the Celsis. She went straight 
down there, and devil a bit as much as sent her aunt a 
telegram!” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


79 


I rose up at his word, and looked him in the face. 

he said, ‘Vhat do you think? You don^t seem 

pleased.” 

‘^I’m not pleased,” I said, going on with my packing. 
don’t think she ought to be there.” 

know that; we’ve talked it all over, but when I think 
of it, I don’t see where the harm comes in; we can’t meet 
mischief crossing the Atlantic, and when the danger does 
begin in INew York, I’ll see she’s well on the lee-side of it.” 

I did not answer him, for I knew that which he did not 
know. Perhaps he began to think that he did not do well 
to treat the matter so lightly, for he was mute when we 
entered the cab, and he did not open his lips until we were 
seated in the night mail for Plymouth. The compartment 
we rode in was reserved for us, as we had wished; and, truth 
to tell, neither of us had much liking for talk as the train 
rolled smoothly westward. We had entered upon this un- 
dertaking, so vast, so shadowy, so momentous, with such 
haste, and moved by such powerful motives, that I know 
not if some thought of sorrow did not then touch us both. 
Who could say if we should live to tell the tale, if our fate 
would not be the fate of Martin Hall, if we should ever so 
much as see the nameless ship, if chance would ever bring 
us face to face with Captain Black? And whither did we 
go? When should we set foot again in that England we 
loved? God alone could tell; and, with one great hope 
in a guiding and all-seeing Providence, I covered myself up 
in my rug, and slept until dawn came, and the fresh 
breezes from the Channel waves brought new strength and 
men’s hearts to us again. 

It was full day when we went on board the yacht, and I 
did not fail to cast a quick glance of admiration on her 
beautiful lines and perfect shape as I clambered up the 
ladder, at the top of which stood Captain York. 

Welcome aboard,” he said, giving us hearty handshakes; 
and without further inspection at that hour we followed 
him to the cabin, where steaming coffee brought the blood 
to our hands and feet, and put us in better mood. 


80 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


my sister’s here/’ said Roderick, as he filled his cup 
for the third time. 

^^es, last night, no orders,” jerked the skipper with his 
usual brevity. 

^^Ah, we must see to that — and the second officer 

^^Still ashore; he left a hit of writing; he’ll be aboard 
midday!” 

He had the writing in his hand, and was about to crumple 
it, hut I caught sight of it, and snatched it from him. It 
was in the same handwriting as the letter which Captain 
Black had sent to me at the Hotel Scribe in Paris. 

‘^What’s the matter?” said Roderick, as he heard me 
exclaim; hut the skipper looked hard at me, and was much 
mystified- 

^^Do you know anything of the man?” he asked very 
slowly, as he leaned back in his chair, but I had already seen 
the folly of my ejaculation, and I replied: 

^^othing at all, although I have seen that handwriting 
before somewhere; I could tell you where, perhaps, if I 
thought.” 

Roderick nodded his head meaningly, and deftly turned 
the subject. I yawned with a great yawn, and the episode 
passed as we both rose to go to our cabins. It is not well 
to greet the waking day with eyes that are half closed in 
sleep; and, although the skipper seemed to desire some 
fuller knowledge as to the ends of our cruise and the course 
of it, we put him off, and left him to the coffee and the 
busy work of the final preparation. But Roderick followed 
me to my berth and had the matter of the handwriting out. 
I told him at once of the robbery of some of the papers, 
and the coincidence of the letter which the second mate 
had left with the skipper. He was quick-witted enough 
to see the danger, but he was quite reckless in the methods 
he proposed to meet it. 

^^There’s no two thoughts about this matter at all,” he 
said; ‘Ve’ve evidently run right into a trap, but luckily 
there’s time to get out again — of course we shall sail without 
a second mate?” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


81 


^^That^s one way out of the hole, no doubt; but it^s very 
serious to find that our very first move in the matter is 
known to others. Hall said well that his diamond buyer 
could command and he obeyed in ten cities; and there isn’t 
much question that we’ve got one of his men aboard this 
ship — hut I don’t know that we shouldn’t keep him.” 

^^Keep him? What for? — to watch everything we do, 
and hear everything we say, and arrange for the cutting of 
our throats when we land at Hew York? You’ve a fine 
notion of diplomacy, Mark!” 

^Terhaps so; hut we won’t quarrel about that. There’s 
one thing you forget in this little calculation of yours — our 
men are as true as steel; this rogue couldn’t turn one of 
them if he staked his life on it. Suppose he has come here 
to use his eyes, and hang about keyholes. Well, we know 
him, fortunately; and what can he learn unless he learns 
it from you or me? There’s not another soul aboard knows 
anything. You will tell the skipper that we cross to 
America” for a pleasure trip; you will help me to keep so 
close an eye on Master Francis Paolo, second mate, that if 
he lose a hair of his head we shall know it. In that way it 
may turn out that we shall get from him the link which is 
lost in the chain; and when he would draw us, we shall 
pump him as dry as a sand-pit. At least, that’s my way of 
thinking, and I don’t think it’s such a poor notion after all.” 

^Tt’s not poor at all — ^it never came to me like that. Of 
course you’re right; let’s take the man aboard, hut I wish 
we could have left Mary behind, don’t you?” 

That I did, hut what could I tell him? It was bad 
enough to be hugging all those fears and thoughts of danger 
to my own heart, without setting him all a-ferment with 
apprehension and unrest; so I laughed off his question, 
and after a six hours’ sleep I went aft to the quarter-deck, 
to take stock of the yacht and get some better acquaintance 
with her. 

She was a finely-built ship of some seven hundred tons, 
and was schooner-rigged, so that she could either sail or 


82 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


steam. Her engines were unusually large for so small a 
vessel, being triple-compound; while the main saloon, aft. 
and the small library attached to it showed in the luxurious 
fitting that her late ovmer had been a man of fine taste. In 
the very center of her there was a deck-house for the chart- 
room, the skipper’s and engineers’ quarters, and for a couple 
of spare cabins; but generally the accommodation was 
below, there being three small cabins with two berths apiece 
each side the saloon, and room for the steward and his men 
amidships. The fo’castle was large and airy, giving ample 
berthing for the stokers and seamen; while the whole orna- 
ment of the deck was bright-looking with brass, and smart 
rails, and pots of flowers, these last showing clearly that 
Mary had been at work. Indeed, I had scarce made my 
inspection of our new ship when she burst up from below, 
and began her explanation, standing with flushed cheeks, 
while the wind played in her hair, and her eyes danced with 
the merriment of it. 

^^Come aboard,” she said, mocking the seaman’s ^^Ad 
sum,” and I said ; 

^^That’s evident; the question is, when are you going 
ashore again?” 

don’t know, but I guess I’ll get ashore at Hew York, 
because I mean to go to Niagara ” 

^^You think you’ll go ashore at Hew York, not ^you 
guess,’ Mary.” 

^^But I do guess, and I don’t think, and I wish you 
wouldn’t interrupt me with your perpetual grammar. 
What’s the good of grammar? Ho one had a good time 
with grammar yet.” 

‘^That’s not exactly the purpose of grammar 

^^Ho; nor of orthography, nor deportment; I learned all 
these at a guinea a quarter extra when I was at school, so 
you’re Just wasting your time, because I’m finished.” 

"finished?” 

^'Yes; didn’t Eoderick tell 5'^ou that I went to a finishing 
school? You wouldn’t finish me all over again, would 
you?” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


83 


‘‘Not for anything. But the question is, why did you 
come aboard here, and why didn’t you go to Salisbury? 
What is your old aunt thinking now?” 

She laughed saucily, throwing hack her head so that her 
hair fell well about her shoulders; and then she would have 
answered me, hut I turned round, hearing a step, and there 
stood our new second mate, Francis Paolo. Our eyes met 
at once with a long, searching gaze, hut he did not flinch. 
If he were a spy, he was no poor actor, and he stood his 
ground without the movement of a muscle. 

“Well?” I said. 

“Is Mr. Stewart awake yet, sir?” he said, asking for 
Eoderick. 

“I don’t know, hut you may wake him if he isn’t.” 

“The skipper wants a word with him when he gets up,” 
he continued; “we are all ready to heave anchor when he 
speaks.” 

“That’s all right; I’ll give you the word, so you can 
weigh now. Perhaps, Mary, you’ll go and hammer at Rod- 
erick’s door, or he’ll sleep until breakfast time to-morrow.” 

She ran at the word, and the new second mate turned to 
go, but flrst he followed the girl with his eyes, earnestly, 
as though he looked upon some all-fascinating picture. 

I watched him walk forward, and followed him, listening 
as he directed the men; and a more seamanlike fellow I 
have never seen. If he were an Italian, he had left all 
accent of speech in his own country, and he gave his orders 
smartly and in a tone which demanded obedience. About 
his seamanship I never had a doubt from the flrst; and I 
say this now: a more capable officer than Francis Paolo 
never took a watch. 

Yet he was a man of violent temper, soon displayed before 
me. 

As I watched him from the hurricane deck, I heard a 
collier who had not yet left the ship give him some impu- 
dence, and look jauntily to the men for approval; but the 
smile was not off his cheeks when the new mate hit him 


84 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


such a terrific blow on the head with a spy-glass he held 
that the fellow reeled through the open bulwarks right into 
his barge, which lay alongside. 

^That’s to set your face straight,” cried the mate after 
him. ^^ext time you laugh aboard here I’ll balance you 
on the other side.” 

The men were hushed before a display of temper like this; 
the skipper on the bridge flushed red with disapproval, but 
said nothing. 

The order ^^Hands heave anchor!” was sung out a moment 
after, and as Eoderick joined me aft, the new Celsis steamed 
away from Plymouth, and the episode was forgotten. 

For truly, as we lost sight of the town and the beautiful 
yacht moved slowly out upon the broader bosom of the 
Channel, thoughts of great moment held us; and I, for my 
part, fell to wondering if I should ever see the face of my 
country again. 

And in that hour the great pursuit began. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


85 


CHAPTEE VIII. 

I DREAM OF PAOLO. 

We had left the Scilly Light two days; the Celsis 
steamed steadily on the great broad of the Atlantic. Night 
had fallen, and Alary had gone below, leaving me '^vith 
Koderick npon the aft-deck, watching the veriest rim of a 
moon, which gave no pretense of a picture, no ornament 
to the dark. 

It was Paolo’s watch, and the skipper had turned in, so 
that, save for the occasional striking of a hell or call from 
the lookout, no sound but the whirring of the screw and 
the surge of the swell fell upon the ear. A night for 
dreamy thoughts of home, of kinsfolk, of the more tender 
things of life; hut for us a night for the talk of that great 
^^might be” which was then so powerful a source of specu- 
lation for both of us. And we were eager to talk, eager 
then as ever since the beginning of it all; eager, above all 
things of the moment, to know when we should next hear 
of Captain Black or of the nameless ship. 

^‘1 shouldn’t wonder,” said Roderick, after twenty sur- 
mises of the sort, ^hf we heard something of her as we cross. 
I have given York orders to keep well in the track of 
steamers; and if your friend Hall be right, that is just 
where the unknown ship will keep. I would give a thou- 
sand pounds to know the story of the man Black. What 
can he be? Is he mad? Is it possible that a man could 
commit piracy, to-day, in the Atlantic, where is the trafhc 
of the world? — where, if the Powers once learned of it, they 
could hunt him down in a day? And yet, put into plain 
English, that is the tale your friend tells.” 

^^It is; I have never doubted that from the first. Captain 
Black is either the most original villain living, or the whole 


86 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


story is a silly dream — ^besides, we have yet to learn if he 
is the commander of the nameless ship; we have also to 
learn if the nameless ship is not a myth. Time alone will 
tell, and our wits.’’ 

“If they are not knocked out of us in the attempt, for, 
see you, Mark, a man with a hole in his head is a precious 
poor person, and, of course, you are prepared either way, 
success or the other thing.” 

“For either; hut I trust one of us may come out of it, 
for Mary’s sake.” 

The thought made him very silent, and presently he 
turned in. I remained above for half an hour, gazing over 
the great sweep of the Atlantic. Paolo was on the bridge, 
as I have said, and, in accordance with my design, I took all 
opportunity of watching him. That night some inexpli- 
cable impulse held me awake when all others slept. I 
made pretense, first of all, to go to my cabin, and bawled a 
good-night to the mate as I went; but it was only to put 
on felt slippers and to get a warm coat, and, with these 
secured, I made my way stealthily amidships, and took a 
stand aft of the skipper’s cabin, where I could pry, yet not 
be seen. Not that I got much for my pains; but I heard 
Paolo address several of the men forward, and it seemed to 
me that his mode of speech was not quite that which should 
be between officer and seaman. Perchance he was guilty 
of nothing more than common affability; but yet I would 
rather have had him gruff and meddlesome than free and 
intimate. 

It chanced that in this watch the new men were on deck, 
my old crew being in the port watch, or I would have 
questioned them there and then. As it was, I let the matter 
go, and smoked; and, indeed, when another bell had struck, 
I was more than rewarded for my pains. Suddenly, on 
the far horizon over the starboard bow, I saw the flare of 
a blue light, bright over the water, and showing, as it flared, 
the dark hull of a great ship. The light was unmistakably, 
I thought, the signal of an ocean-going steamer which had 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


87 


sighted another of her company still farther away from us; 
but I had no more than time to come to this conclusion 
when, to my profound amazement, Paolo himself struck 
light to a flare which he had with him on the bridge, and 
answered the signal, our own light showing far out, and 
lighting the great moving sea on which we rode so that 
one could count every crest about us. 

This action completely staggered me. Without a thought 
I rushed up the ladder to the hurricane deck and stood 
beside him. He started as he saw me, and I could see him 
biting his lips, while an ugly look came into his eyes. But 
I charged him at once. 

^^Good evening. Mister Mate,’^ I said. “Will you kindly 
tell me why you burned that blue light?” 

His excuse came readily. 

“I burned it to answer the signal yonder.” 

“But that was no affair of ours!” 

He shrugged his shoulders, and muttered something 
about custom and something else, which he meant to be 
impudent. Yet in another moment he made effort to recall 
himself, and met me with an open, smiling face which 
covered anger. I began to upbraid myself for the folly of 
it, bursting out thus when there was no call for show; and 
I turned the talk to other things, searching to learn about 
him and his past; yet it was without reward, for he fenced 
in speech with all the point of a close Scotsman. But we 
came down from the bridge together when the new watch 
was set, and he took a glass of wine with me in the saloon. 

It was all well acted, a fine pretense of common civility, 
yet I believe that we two then took acquaintance of each 
other in the fullest measure; and he learned, though he 
did not show it, that in the game of eavesdropping there 
may he two that play. 

When I turned in at last, the little wind there was had 
fallen away, so that the yacht was almost without motion; 
save, indeed, that long roll from which an ocean-going ship 
is rarely free. I had the electric light in my cabin with a 


88 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


tap on the edge of my bunk, mighty convenient for reading 
and waking; but I was full of sleep, in spite of what had 
been above, and I turned out the lamp directly I fell upon 
my bed. 

I think I must have slept very heavily for an hour, when 
a great sense of unrest and waking weariness took me, and 
I lay, now dozing, now dreaming, so that in all my dreams 
I saw the face of Paolo. I seemed to walk the decks of 
the Celsis, yet was Paolo there more strong and masterful 
than I; again I went to the stoke-hole, and he was charging 
the men with much authority; I hurried thence to the 
saloon, and in my silly dream I thought to see Captain 
Black upon the one hand and Paolo on the other, and a 
great friendship of manner and discourse between them. 

Again I slept the black sleep; but it passed into other 
visions, so that in one of them I seemed to be lying awake 
in my own cabin, and the man Paolo stood over me, looking 
straight into my eyes; and when I would have risen up to 
question him I was powerless, held still in every limb, living, 
yet without life or speech — a horrid dream from which I 
seemed to rouse myself only at the touch of something cold 
upon my outstretched hand; and then at last I opened my 
eyes and saw, during the veriest reality of time, that others 
looked down into mine. I saw them for some small part 
of a second, yet in the faint light that came from the port 
I recognized the face and the form, and was certain of them; 
for the man who had been watching me as I slept was Paolo. 

A quick sense of danger waked me thoroughly then. I 
put my hand to the tap of the electric light, and the white 
rays flooded the cabin. But the cabin was empty, and 
Poderick^s dog sat by my trunk, and had, I could see, been 
licking my hand as I lay. 

I knew not how to make out the meaning of it; but I 
was trembling from the horror of the dream, and went 
above in my flannels. It was dawn then, and day was 
coming up out of the sea, cold and bearing mists, which lay 
low over the long, restful waves. Pan was aft on the quar- 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


89 


ter-deck, and the first officer was on the bridge; but •! 
looked into Paolo’s bunk, and he slept there, in so heavy a 
sleep that I began to doubt altogether the truth of what I 
had believed. How could this man have left my cabin 
as he had done, and yet now be berthed in his own? The 
dream had cheated me, as dreams often do. 

But more sleep was not to be thought of. I fell to talk 
with Dan, and paced the deck with him, asking what was 
his opinion of our new second mate. 

He scratched his head before he answered, and looked 
wise, as he loved to look. 

^^Lord, sir, it’s not for me to be spoutin’ about them as is 
above me; but you ask me a fair question, and I’ll give you 
a fair answer. In course, I ain’t the party to be thinking 
ill of any man — not Dan, which is plain and English, 
though some as is scholars say it should be Dan’el; but 
what I do know, I know — ^you won’t be contradictin’ that, 
will \ou?” 

I told him to get on with it; but he was woefully delib- 
erate, cutting tobacco to chew, and hitching himself up 
before he was under weigh again. 

‘^How,” he said at last, ^fihe fact about our second is this, 
in my opinion — which ain’t mine, but the whole of ’em — 
he’s no more’n a ship vfith a voice under the forehatch ” 

I laughed at him as I asked, ^‘And what’s the matter 
with a ship like that ? Why shouldn’t there be a voice under 
the forehatch, Dan?” 

He lit his pipe behind the aft skylight, and then an- 
swered, as he puffed clouds of smoke to the lee side: 

^^Well, you see, sir, as there ain’t nobody a-livin’ in that 
pertieler place, you don’t go for to look to bearin’ of voices, 
or, in plain lingo, there’s something queer about it.” 

"And that’s your opinion, Dan?” 

"As true as this fog’s a-liftin’ to windward.” 

I looked as he jerked his thumb to port, and, sure enough, 
the curtain of the fog was drawn up from the sea as the 
wind’s wand scattered it. Glorious and joy-giving, the 


90 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


sun arose, and the whole horizon-hound expanse of rolling, 
green water lay beneath us. There is something of God in 
every daybreak, as most men admit, but I know nothing 
against the glory of a morn upon the Atlantic for bringing 
home to a man the delight in mere existence. The very 
sense of strength which the breeze bears, the limitless deep 
green of the unmeasured seas, the great arch of the zenith, 
the clear view of the sun’s march, the purity and the still- 
ness and the mastery of it all, the consciousness of the puny 
power of man, the mind message recalling the sublimity 
and the awe of the unseen Power beyond — all these things 
impress you, move in you the deepest thoughts, turn you 
from the little estimates of self as Nature only can in the 
holiest of her moods, which are sought, yet never found in 
the cities. Nor can I ever welcome the breath of the great 
sea’s vigor, and refuse to listen to her voice, which comes 
with so powerful a message, even as a message from the 
great Unknown, whose hand controls, and whose spirit is 
on, the waters. 

The sound of a gunshot to leeward awoke me from 
my thoughts. The fog was yet lying there upon the sea, 
and for some time none of us, expectant as we were, 
could discern aught. But, feeling that some vessel lay in 
distress, we put the helm up and went half-speed for a 
time. We had cruised thus for five minutes or more when 
a terrific report burst upon our ears, and this time to the 
alarm of every man who trod deck. For this second report 
was not that of a small gun such as crippled ships may use, 
but the thunderous echoing of a great weapon which a man- 
of-war only could carry. 

The sound died away slowly; but in the same minute 
the fog lifted; and I saw, away a mile on the starboard bow, 
a spectacle which brought a great fiush upon my face, and 
let me hear the sound of my own heart beating. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


91 


CHAPTEE IX. 

I FALL IN WITH THE NAMELESS SHIP. 

There were two great ships abreast of each other, and they 
were steaming with so great a pressure of steam that the 
dark green water was cleaved into two huge waves of foam 
before their bows; and the spray ran right over their 
fo’castles and fell in tons upon their decks. 

The more distant of the two ships was long in shape and 
dark in color; she had four masts upon which topsails and 
staysails were set, and two funnels painted white, but 
marked with the anchor, which clearly set her down to be 
one of the famous Black Anchor fleet. My powerful spy- 
glass gave me a full view of her decks, which I saw to be 
dark with the figures of passengers and crew all crowding to 
the port side, wherefrom the other ship was approaching 
her. 

Yet was it this other ship which drew our gaze rather 
than the great steamer which seemed to be pursued. Al- 
most of the same length as the passenger steamer, which she 
now approached obliquely, she rode the long swell with 
perfect grace, and many of her deck houses and part of her 
prow shone with the brightness of pure gold. Full the sun 
fell upon her in a sheen of shimmering splendor, throwing 
great reflected lights which dazzled the eye so that it could 
scarce hold any continued gaze upon her. And indeed, 
every ornament on her seemed to be made of the precious 
metal, now glowing to exceeding brilliance in the full power 
of the sunlight. 

She was a very big ship, as I have said, and she had all 
the shape of a ship of war, while the turrets fore and aft of 
her capacious funnel showed the muzzles of two big guns. 


92 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


I could see by my glass a whole wealth of armament in 
the foretop of her short mast forward; and high points 
in her fo’castle marked the spot where many other machine 
guns were ready for action. At her towering and lofty 
prow there was indicated clearly the curve of the ram which 
now plowed the dark water and curdled it into the fountains 
of foam which fell upon her decks; while amidships, the 
outline of a conning tower showed more clearly for what 
aggressive purpose she had been designed. There was at 
this spot, too, a great deck erection, with a gallery and a 
bridge for navigation; but no men showed upon the plat- 
form, and, for the matter of that, no soul trod her decks, 
so far as our observation went. Yet her speed was such 
as I do not believe any ship achieved before. I have spent 
many years upon the sea; have crossed the Atlantic in some 
of the most speedy of those cruisers which are the just 
pride of a later-day ship-building art; I have raced in tor- 
pedo boats over known miles; but of this I have no measure 
of doubt, that the speed of which that extraordinary vessel 
then proved herself capable was such as no other that ever 
swam could for one moment cope with. Now rising majes- 
tically on the long roll of the swell, now falling into the 
concave of the sea, she rushed onward toward the steamer 
she was evidently pursuing as though driven by all the 
furies of the deep. 

As we watched her, held rooted to our places as men 
who are looking upon some strange and uncanny picture, 
the gun in her foremost turret belched out flame and smoke, 
and we observed the rise and fall of a shell, which cut the 
water a cable’s length ahead of the straining steamer and 
sank hissing beneath the sea. At that moment she ran up 
a flag upon her signal mast, and, as I read it with my glass, 
I saw that it was the flag of the Chilian Eepublic. 

Now, indeed the pursuit became so engrossing that my 
own men began to sing out, and this reminded me that 
every soul aboard the Celsis had watched with me when I 
first set eyes on the nameless ship. I turned to our skipper. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


93 


who stood near on the hurricane deck, and saw that he in 
turn was looking hard at me. Roderick had come up from 
his cabin, but rested at the top of the companion ladder 
in so dazed a mood that no speech came from him. The 
first officer had scarce his wits about him to steer our own 
course, and the whole of the hands forward in a little group 
upon the fo’castle now called out their views, then turned 
to ask what it meant. 

It was a matter of satisfaction to me that Mary still 
slept, and I looked for the appearance of Paolo with some 
question. But he remained below through it all. And at 
that I wondered more. 

The skipper was the first to speak. 

^^That ship yonder,’^ said he, jerking his thumb to star- 
board; ^fis it any business of ours?” 

^^None that I know of,” I replied; “but it’s a mighty 
fine sight, skipper, don’t you think, a Chilian warship 
running after a liner in broad daylight? What’s your 
opinion ?” 

He shrugged his shoulders disdainfully, and took another 
sight through his glass. Then he answered me: 

“It’s a fine sight enough, God knows, but I would give 
half I’m worth to be a hundred miles away from it;” and 
here he suddenly wheeled about, and, facing me roughly, 
he asked: 

“Do you want me to get this boat into port again?” 

“Of course. Is there any great need to answer a question 
like that?” 

“At the moment, yes; for, with your pleasure, I’m going 
to put up the helm and sheer off. I’m not a man that 
loves fighting myself, and, with a ship and crew to look 
after, I’ve no business in any affair of that sort; but it’s for 
you to say.” 

Before I could answer him, Eoderick moved from his 
place, and came up on the bridge where we stood. 

“Hold on a bit, skipper,” he cried, “as we are, if you 
please; why, man, it’s a sight I wouldn’t miss for a for- 
tune.” 


94 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


The skipper searched him with his eyes with a keen, 
lasting gaze, that implied his doubt of the pair of us. His 
voice had a fine ring of sarcasm in it when he replied after 
the silence; but all he said was, 'Tt’s your affair,” and then 
he turned to the first officer. 

^^Don’t you think he was right?” I asked Eoderick in a 
low voice, when the chiefs hack was turned, but he whis- 
pered again: 

‘^Not yet — we must see more of it; and they’re too 
much occupied to hunt after us. We’ll he away long 
before those two have settled accounts; and, look now, I 
can see a man on the bridge of the yellow ship. Do you 
mark him?” 

I had my glass to my eye in a moment, and the light 
was so full upon the vessel, which must then have been a 
mile and a half away from us, that I could prove his words; 
for, sure enough, there was now someone moving upon the 
bridge, and, as I fixed my powerful lens, I thought that I 
could recognize the shape of a man; but I would not speak 
my mind to Eoderick until I had a nearer view. 

‘^You are right,” I answered; ^^but what sort of a man 
I will tell you presently. Did you ever see anything like 
the pace that big ship is showing? She must be moving at 
twenty-five knots.” 

‘^Yes, it’s amazing; and, what’s more, there isn’t a show 
of smoke at her funnel.” 

This was true, but I had not noticed it. Throughout 
the strange scene we saw, this vessel of mystery never gave 
one sign that men worked at her furnaces below. Neither 
steam nor smoke came from her, no evidence, even the 
most trifling, of that terrible power which was then driving 
her through the seas at such a fearful speed. 

But of the activity of her human crew we had speedily 
further sign; for, almost as I answered, there was some 
belching of flame from her turret, and this time the shell, 
hurtling through the air with that hissing sound which 
every gunner knows so well, crashed full upon the forepart 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


95 


of the great liner, and we heard the shout of terror which 
rose from those upon her decks. Then men appeared at the 
signal-mast of the pursuer, and rapidly made signals in the 
common code. 

^^Skipper, do you see that? — ^they’re signaling,” I cried 
out. ‘^Get your glass up, and take a sight;” but he had 
already done so. 

^Tt’s the signal to lie to, and wait a boat,” he said; ^There’s 
someone going aboard.” 

The fulfilment of the reading was instant. While yet 
we had not realized that the onward rush of the two boats 
was stayed the foam fell away from their hows; and they 
rode the seas superbly, sitting the long swells with a beauti- 
ful ease. But there was activity on the deck of the name- 
less ship, and men were at the davits on the starboard side 
swinging off a launch, which dropped presently into the sea 
with a crew of some half a dozen men. For ourselves, we 
were now quite close up to them, hut so busily were they 
occupied that I believed we had escaped all notice. Yet I 
got my glass full upon the man who walked the bridge; 
and I knew him. 

He was the man I had met in the Eue Joubert at Paris, 
the one styled Captain Black by my friend Hall. 

The last link in the long chain was welded then. The 
whole truth of that weird document, so fantastical, so 
seemingly wild, so fearful, was made manifest; the dead 
man’s words were vindicated, his every deduction was 
unanswerable. There on the great Atlantic waste, I had 
lived to see one of those terrible pictures which he had 
conceived in the midst of his long dreaming; and through 
all the excitement, and above all the noise, I thought that I 
heard his voice and the grim ^^Ahoys!” of my own sea- 
men on the night he had died. 

This strange recognition was unknown to Eoderick, 
who had never seen Captain Black, nor had any notion of 
his appearance. But he waited for some remark from me; 
yet, fearing to be heard, I only looked at him and in that 
look he read all. 

7 


THE IRON PIRATE. 




“Mark,” lie said, time to go; we’ll be the next when 
that ship’s at the bottom.” 

God!” I answered, ‘^he can’t do such a thing as that. 
If I thought so, I would stand by her at the risk of a thou- 
sand lives 

^^That’s wild talk. What can we do? He would shiver 
us up with one of his machine guns — and, besides, we have 
Mary on board.” 

Indeed, she stood beside us as we spoke, very pale and 
quiet, looking where the two ships lay motionless, the boat 
from the one now at the very side of the black steamer, 
whose name, the Ocean King, we could plainly read. She 
had, unnoticed by us, seen the work of the last shell, which 
splintered the groaning vessel, and made her reel upon the 
vrater; and her instinct told her that we stood where 
danger was. 

‘^Don’t you think you’re better below, Mary?” asked 
Roderick; but she had her old answer: 

^^Not until you go; and why should I make any differ- 
ence? I overheard what you said. Am I to stand between 
you and those men’s lives?” 

She clung to my arm as she spoke, and her boldness 
gave us new courage. 

“I am for standing by to the end,” said I; ^^if we save 
one soul, it’s an English work to do, anyway.” 

Roderick looked at Mary, then he turned to the 
skipper: 

“Do you wish to go on the other tack now?” he asked; 
but the skipper was himself again. 

“Gentlemen,” he said, “it’s your yacht, and these are 
your men; if you care to keep them afloat, keep them. If 
it’s your fancy to do the other thing, why, do it. It’s a 
matter of indifference to me.” 

His words were heard by all the hands, and from that 
time there was something of a clamor amongst them; but 
I stepped forward to have out what was in my mind, and 
they heard me quietly. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


97 


I said, ^^there’s ugly work over there, work which 
I can make nothing of; but it’s clear that an English ship 
is running from a foreigner, and may want help. Shall we 
leave her, or shall we stand by?” 

They gave a great shout at this, and the skipper touched 
the bell, which stopped our engines. We lay then quite 
near both to the pursued and the pursuer, and there was no 
longer any doubt that we had been seen. 

Glasses were turned upon us from the decks of the yellow 
ship, and from the poop of the Ocean King, whose men 
were still busy with the signal flags, and this time, as 
we made out, in a direct request to us that w'e should stand 

fey- 

I doubt not that the excitement and the danger of the 
position alone nerved us to this work of amazing foolhardi- 
ness, which was so like to have ended in our complete 
undoing; and, as I watched the captain of the steamer 
parleying with the men in the launch below him, I could 
not but ask — ^What next? when will our turn be? 

But the scene was destined to end in a way altogether 
different from what we had anticipated. 

While a tall man with fair hair — my glass gave me the 
impression that he was the fellow known as ^^Eoaring J ohn” 
— stood in the bows of the launch, and appeared to be 
gesticulating wildly to the skipper of the Ocean King, the 
nameless ship set up of a sudden a great shrieking with her 
deck whistle, which she blew three times with terriflc power; 
and at the third sound of it the launch, which had been 
holding to the side of the steamer, let go, running rapidly 
back to the armed vessel, where it was taken aboard again. 

The whole thing was done in so short a space of time 
that our men scarce had opportunity to express surprise 
when the launch was hanging at the davits again. The 
great activity that we had observed on the decks of the war- 
vessel ceased as mysteriously as it had begun. Again there 
was no sign of living being about her; but she moved at 
once, and bounded past us at a speed the like to which I 
had never seen upon the deep. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


9S 


So remarkable a face-about seemed to dumbfound our 
men. They stood staring at each other like those amazed, 
and seeking explanation. But the key to the riddle was 
given, not by one of them, but by Paolo, whom I now found 
at my elbow, his usually placid face all aglow with excite- 
ment. 

^^Ha!” he cried, ‘^she’s American!” 

He made a wild point at the far horizon over our stern; 
and then I saw what troubled him. There was a great 
white steamer coming up ab a high speed, and I knew the 
form of her at once, and of two others that followed her. 
She was one of the American navy, crossing to her own 
country from Europe, whither she had been to watch the 
British maneuvers. The secret of the flight was no longer 
inexplicable; the yellow ship had fled from the trap into 
which she was so nearly falling. 

^^You have sharp eyes, Paolo,” said I ; “I imagine iPs 
lucky for the pair of us.” 

He shrugged his shoulders angrily, and then said very 
meaningly: 

^Terhaps.” 

I had no time to reckon with him, for I was as much 
absorbed as he was in the scene which followed. The name- 
less ship, of a sudden, ceased her flight, and came almost to 
a stand some half a mile away on our port-bow. For a 
moment her purpose was hidden, yet only for a moment. 
As she swung round to head the seas, I saw at once that 
another cruiser, long and white, and seemingly well-armed, 
had come up upon that side, and now barred her passage. 
At last, she was to cope with one worthy of her, and at the 
promise of battle, a hush, awful in its intensity, fell upon 
all of us. 

For some minutes the two vessels lay, the one broadside 
to the other, the Americans making signals which were 
unanswered; but the nameless ship had now hundreds of 
men about her decks, and these were at the machine-guns 
and elsewhere active in preparation. It became plain that 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


her captain had made up his mind to some plan, for the 
great hull swung round slowly, and passed at a moderate 
speed past the bow of the other. When she was nearly clear, 
her two great guns were fired almost simultaneously, and, 
as the shells swept along the deck of the cruiser, they 
carried men and masts and deck-houses with them, in one 
deyilish confusion of wreckage and of death. To such an 
onslaught there was no answer. The cruiser was utterly 
unprepared for the treachery,^ and lay reeling on the sea; 
screams and fearful cries coming from her decks, now quiv- 
ering under a torrent of fire as her opponent treated her to 
the hail of her machine guns. 

The battle could have ended but in one way, had not the 
other American war-ships now come so close to us that 
they opened fire with their great guns. The huge shells 
hissed over our heads, and all about us, plunging into the 
sea with such mighty concussions that fountains of green 
water arose in twenty places, and the near surface of the 
Atlantic became turbulent with foam. Such a powerful 
onslaught could have been resisted by no single vessel, and, 
seeing that he was like to be surrounded, the captain of the 
nameless ship, which had already been struck three times 
in her armor, fired twice from his turrets, and then headed 
off at that prodigious speed he had shown in the beginning 
of his flight. In five minutes he was out of gunshot; in 
ten, the American vessels were taking men from their 
crippled cruiser, whose antagonists had almost disappeared 
on the horizon! 

Upon our own decks the noise and hubbub were almost 
deafening. From a state of nervous tension and doubt our 
men had passed to a state of joy. Half of them were for 
going aboard the damaged vessels at once; half for getting 
under weigh and moving from such dangerous waters. Our 
talk upon the quarter-deck soon brought us to the first- 
named course, and we put out a boat with ease upon the 
still sea, and hailed the passenger steamer after twenty 
minutes’ stout rowing. She was yet a pitiful spectacle; for 


100 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


as we drew near to her, I could see women weeping hyster- 
ically on the seats aft, and men alternately helping them 
and looking over in the direction whence the three Ameri- 
can ironclads steamed. Indeed, it was a picture of great 
confusion and distress, and we hailed those on her bridge 
three times before we got any answer. When we did get 
up on her main-deck, Captain Ross, her commander, greeted 
us with great thanks; but he was a sorry spectacle of a 
man, being white as his own ensign with anger, and his 
voice trembled as the voice of a man suffering some great 
emotion. He took us to his chart-room, for he would have 
all particulars about us, both our names and addresses, with 
those of our officers, for a witness when he should call the 
British Government to take action. 

'^Twenty years,” he said, with tears of anger in his eyes, 
^ffwenty years I have crossed the Atlantic, but this is the 
first time that I ever heard the like. Good God, sirs! it’s 
nothing less than piracy on the high seas; and they shall 
swing, every man Jack of them, as high as Hainan. What 
think ye? They signal me to lie to — ^me that has the mails 
and a hundred thousand pounds in specie aboard; and fire 
a shot across my bows, and when I signal that I’ll see them 
in hell before I bate a knot, why — you watched it your- 
selves — they struck me in the fo’castle, and there’s two 
of my dead men below now; but they shall swing” — and 
he brought his fist upon the table with a mighty thud — 
‘They shall swing, if there’s only one rope in Europe.” 

I had sorrow for the man who was thus moved — for the 
most part, I could see, at the loss of his two men. Then I 
went forward with the others to the place of wreckage, and 
for the first time in my life I observed the colossal havoc 
which a shell may leave in its path. The single shot which 
had struck the steamer had cut her two sldns of steel as 
though they had been skins of cheese; had splintered the 
wood of the men’s bunks, so that it lay in match-like frag- 
ments which a fine knife might have hewed; had passed 
again through the steel on the starboard side, and so burst. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


101 


leaving the fo’castle one tumbled mass of torn blankets, 
little rags of linen, fragments of wood, of steel, of clothes 
which had been in the men’s chests; and more horrible to 
recount, particles of human flesh. Three men were below 
when the crash came, and two of them had their limbs torn 
apart; while, by one of the miracles which oft attend the 
passage of a shot, the third, being in a low bunk when the 
shell struck, escaped almost uninjured. This desolate and 
wrecked cabin was shown to us by Captain Eoss, whose 
anger mounted at every step. 

^^What does it mean?” he kept asking. ‘^Are we at war? 
You saw the Chilian flag. Is there no Treaty of Paris, 
then? Does he go out to filch every ship he meets? Will 
he do this, and our government take no steps? Can’t you 
answer me that?” But he poured out his questions with 
such rapidity, and he was so overcome, that we followed him 
in silence as he walked beneath the awnings of the upper 
decks, and showed us women still talking hysterically, men 
unneiwed and witless as children, seamen yet finding curses 
for the atrocity that had been. By this time, the first of 
the American ships had come up with us, and the com- 
mander of her put out a boat, and having gone aboard the 
maimed cruiser, he came afterward to the Black Anchor 
ship, and joined us in the chart-room. I will make no at- 
tempt to set down for you his surprise nor his incredulity. 
I believe that the scene in the fo’castle alone convinced him 
that we were not all raving madmen; but, when once he 
grasped our story, he was not a whit behind us, either in 
intensity of expression or of sympathy. 

^Tt’s an international question, I guess,” he said; ^^and 
if he doesn’t pay with his neck for the twenty men dead on 
my cruiser, to say nothing of the twenty thousand pounds 
or more of damage to her, I will — why, we’ll run him down 
in four-and-twenty hours. You took his course?” 

^‘West by southwest, almost dead,” said the captain; and 
I heard it agreed between them that the second cruiser of 
the American fleet should start at once in pursuit, while the 


102 


THB IRON PIRATB. 


ironclads should accompany us to New York, so making a 
little convoy for safety’s sake. 

With this arrangement we left the ship and regained the 
Celsis. Paolo stood at the top of the ladder as I came on 
deck, and listened, I thought, to our protestations that the 
danger was over with something of a sneer on his face. 

Indeed, I thought that I heard him mutter, as he went 
to his cabin, ^^Vedremo — but I did not know then how 
much the laugh was to be against us, and that we should 
leave the convoy long before we reached New York. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


103 


CHAPTER X. 

THE SPREAD OF THE TERROR 

For full five days we steamed with the other vessels, under 
no stress to keep the sea with them, since they made no more 
than twelve knots, for the sake of the cruiser which had 
been so fearfully maimed in the short action with the name- 
less ship. During this time there was little power of wind; 
and the breeze continuing soft from the northeast, it was 
easy business to hold sight of the convoy, which we did 
to the satisfaction of every man aboard us. But I could 
not put away from myself the knowledge that the events 
of the first three days had made much talk in the fo’castle 
and that a feeling akin to terror prevailed amongst the 
men. 

This came home to me with some force on the early 
morning of the fifth day. I found myself unable to sleep 
restfully in my bunk, and went above at daybreak, to see 
the white hulls of the American war vessels a mile away on 
the port-quarter and the long line of the Black Anchor boat 
a few cables’ length ahead of them. Paolo was on the 
bridge, but I did not hail him, thinking it better to give the 
man few words until we sighted Sandy Hook. He, in turn, 
maintained his sullen mood; but he did not neglect to be 
much amongst the hands, and his intimacy with them in- 
creased from day to day. 

Now, when I came on deck this morning, I found that 
the breeze, strong and fresh though it was, put me in that 
soporific state I had sought unavailingly in my bunk. There 
was a deck-chair well placed behind the shelter of the saloon 


104 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


skylight, and upon this I made myself at ease, drawing my 
peaked hat upon my eyes, and getting the sleep-music from 
the swish of the sea, as it ran upon us, and sprinted 
from the tiller right away to the bob-stay. But no sleep 
could I get; for scarce was I upon the chair when I heard 
Dan the other side of the skylight, and he was holding 
forth with much fine phrase to Roderick’s dog. Belle. 

^^Yes,” he said, apparently treating the beast as though 
possessed of all human attributes. ^^Yes, you don’t go for 
to say nothing, but you’re a Christian dog, I don’t doubt; 
and yer heart’s in the right place; or it’s not me as would 
be wasting me time talking to yer. Now, what I says is, 
you’re comfortable enough, with Missie a-makin’ as much of 
yer as if good fresh beef weren’t tenpence a pound, and yer 
mouth weren’t large enough to take in a hundredweight; 
but that ain’t the way T\dth the rest of us — no, my old 
woman, not by a cable’s length; we’re afloat on a rum job, 
old lady; and some of us won’t go for to pipe when it’s the 
day for payin’ off — not by a long way. So you hear; and 
don’t get answerin’ of me, for what I spoke’s logic, an^l 
there’s an end of it.” 

I called him to me, and had it out with him there and 
then. 

“What’s in the wind now, Dan,” I asked, “that you’re 
preaching to the dog?” 

“Ay, that’s it,” he replied, putting his hand into his 
pocket for his tobacco-box. ^What’s in the wind?’ — why, 
you’d have to be askin’ of it to learn, I fancy.” 

“Is there any more nonsense among the men for- 
ward?” 

“There’s a good deal of talk — maybe more than there 
should be.” 

“And what do they talk about? Tell me straight, 
Dan.” 

“Well, I’ve got nothing, for my part, to hide away, and 
I don’t know as they should have; but you know this ship 
is a dead man’s!” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


105 


^‘Who told you that stuJff?” 

^^No other than our second mate, sir, as sure as I cut 
this quid. Not as yarns like that affect me; but, you see, 
some skulls is thick as plate-armor, and some is thin as 
egg-shells; and when the thin ’uns gets afloat with corpses, 
why, if s a chest of shiners to a handspike as they cracks — 
now, ain’t it?” 

“Dan, this is the most astounding story that I have yet 
heard. Would you make it plainer? for, upon my life, I 
can’t read your course.” 

He sat down on the edge of the skylight — long service 
had given him a claim to familiarity — and filled his pipe 
from my tobacco-pouch before he answered me, and then was 
mighty deliberate. 

“Plain yarns. Mister Mark, is best told in the fo’castle, 
and not by hands upon the quarter-deck; but, asking 
pardon for the liberty, I feel more like a father to you 
gentlemen than if I was nat’ral born to it; and this I do 
say — what’s this trip mean? what’s in yer papers? and 
why ain’t it the pleasure vige we struck flag for? For 
it ain’t a pleasure vige, that a ’shoreman could see; and you 
ain’t come across the Atlantic for the seein’ of it, nor for 
merchandise nor barter, nor because you wanted to come. 
That’s what the hands say at night when the second’s 
a-talkin’ to ’em over the grog which he finds ’em. ‘Where’s 
it going to end?’ says he; ‘what is yer wages for takin’ yer 
lives where they shouldn’t be took? and,’ says he, ‘in a ship 
what the last skipper died aboard of it,’ says he, ‘died so 
sudden, and was so fond of his old place as who knows 
where he is now, afloat or ashore, p’raps a-walking this very 
cabin, and not bringing no luck for the vige, neither,’ says 
he. And what follows? — why, white-livered jawings, and 
this man afeard to go here, and that man afeard to go there, 
and the Old One amongst ’em, so that half of ’em says, ‘We 
was took false,’ and the other half, ‘Why not ’bout ship and 
home again?* No, and you ain’t done with it, not by a long 
day, and you won’t have done with it until you drop anchor 


106 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


in Yankee-land, if ever you do drop anchor there, which I 
take leave to give no word upon.’’ 

^‘It’s a curious state of things. You mean to say, I 
suppose, that there’s terror among them — plain terror, 
and nothing else?” 
sure.” 

^^Then it remains for us to face them. What’s your 
opinion on that?” 

^^My opinion is, as you won’t go far to do it, but will 
take your victuals, and play your music in the aft parlor, 
and skeer away the Old One with the singing, as ye’ve 
skeered him already — that’s what ye’ll do afore Missie and 
the skipper — ^but by yourself, you won’t have two eyes shut 
when you sleep, and you won’t have two eyes open when 
you’re above; and when your’re wanted you won’t be an 
hour getting yourself nor Mr. Roderick under weigh — and 
that’s the end of it, for there goes the bell.” 

The watch changed as he spoke, and I went below to 
the bathroom; thence, not thinking much of Dan’s terror, 
nor of the men’s petty grumbling, I joined the others at 
breakfast. We were now well on toward the end of the 
journey, and I itched to set foot in America. The new 
safety in the presence of the war-ships had given us light 
hearts; and that fifth day we passed in great games of deck- 
quoits and cricket, with a soft ball which the bo’sun made 
for us of tow and linen. The men worked cheerfully 
enough, giving the lie direct to Dan; and when Mary played 
to us after dinner at night I began to think that, all said 
and done, we should touch shore with no further happening; 
and that then I could make all use of the man Paolo and 
his knavery. So I went to bed at ten o’clock, and for an 
hour or two I slept with the deep forgetfulness which is the 
reward of a weary man. 

At what hour Dan awoke me I cannot tell you. He shook 
me twice in the effort, he said, and when I would ha\e 
turned up the electric light, he seized my hand roughly, 
muttering in a great whisper, ^Tlold steady.” I knew then 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


107 


that mischief was afloat, and asked him what to do. 

^‘Crawl above/^ he said, ^^and lie low a-deck;’’ and he 
went up the companion ladder when I got my flannels and 
rubber-shod shoes upon me. But at the topmost step he 
stood awhile, and then he fell flat on his hands, and backed 
again down the stairway, so that he came almost on top of 
me; but I saw what prompted his action, for, as he moved, 
there was a shadow thrown from the deck light down to 
where we lay; and then a man stepped upon the stair and 
descended slowly, his feet naked, but in his hand an iron 
bar; for he had no other weapon. At the sight of him, 
we had backed to the foot of the stairway; and, as the man 
crept down, we lay still, so that you could hear every quiver 
of the glass upon the table of the saloon; and we watched 
the fellow drop step by step until he was quite close to us 
in the dark, and his breath was hot upon us. Swiftly then 
and silently he entered the place; and, going to my cabin 
door, he slipped a wedge under it, serving the other doors 
around the big cabin in the same way. The success seemed 
to please him; he chuckled softly, and came again to the 
ladder, where, with a quick motion, Dan brought his pistol- 
butt (for I had armed him) full upon the fellow’s forehead, 
and he went down like a dead thing at the foot of the swing- 
ing table. 

There we left him, after we had bound his hands with 
my scarf; and with a hurried knock got Eoderick from his 
berth. He, in turn, aroused his sister, and in five minutes 
we al] stood in the big saloon and discussed our plan. 

Dan’s whispered tale was this. The watch was Paolo’s, 
who had persuaded four stokers and six of the forward hands 
to his opinion. These men, the dupes of the second officer, 
had determined on this much — that the voyage to New York 
should be stopped abruptly, come what might, and that our 
intent should go for nothing. We, being locked in our 
cabins, were to have no voice in the affair; or, if waked, 
then we should be knocked on the head, and so quieted to 
reason. 


108 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


It was a desperate endeavor, wrought of fear; hut at 
that moment the true hands of the fo’castle were battened 
down, and Dan, who had seen the thing coming, escaped 
only by his foresight. That night he had felt danger, and 
had wrapped himself up in a tarpaulin, and lain concealed 
on deck. 

As it was, Paolo stood at the door of the skipper’s room; 
there were three men guarding the fo’castle, and five at the 
foot of the hurricane deck. One man we had settled with; 
but we were three, and eight men stood between us and the 
true hands. 

Eoderick was the first to get his wits and plan a 
course. 

^^We must act now,” he said, ^T)efore they miss their man. 
They’ve stopped the engines, and we shall drop behind the 
others. There’s only one chance, and that is to surprise 
them. Let’s rush it, and take the odds.” 

'^You can’t rush it,” I replied; ‘They’re looking for that; 
and if one now went forward they would shoot him down 
straight — and what’s to follow? They come aft, and how 
can we hold them? But we must get the skipper awake, or 
they’ll knock him on the head while he sleeps.” 

Mary had listened, shivering with the night cold; but 
she had a word to add, and its wisdom was no matter for 
dispute. 

“If I went,” she said, “what could they do to me?” 

We were all silent. 

“I’m going now,” she said; “while I’m talking to them 
they won’t be looking for you.” 

“Certainly, we could follow up,” I added, “and might 
get them down if you held them in talk; but don’t you 
fear?” 

She laughed, and gave answer by running up the com- 
panion-way, and standing at the top; while we cocked our 
pistols, and crept after her. Then we lay fiat to the deck, 
as she ran noiselessly amidships, and into the very center 
of the five men. To our astonishment, they gave a great 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


109 


howl of terror at the sight of her — for it lay so dark that 
she seemed but a thing of shadow hovering upon the ship — 
and bolted headlong forward; while we rushed in a body to 
the hurricane deck, and faced Paolo. He turned very 
white, and would have opened his lips; but Dan served 
him as the other, and hit him with his pistol, so that he 
rolled senseless off the narrow bridge, and we heard the 
thud of his head against the iron of the engine room hatch. 
He had scarce fallen when Mary, with the laugh still upon 
her lips, reeled at the sight of him, and fell fainting in my 
arms. I knocked at the skipper’s door, but he was already 
on his feet, and passed me to the bridge while I laid the 
swooning girl on the sofa in the chart-room. 

The skipper got the whole situation at the first look, and 
acted in his usual silence. He re-entered his own cabin, and 
came to us again with a couple of rifles, which he loaded. 
We were now all crouching together by the wheel amid- 
ships, for Mary had recovered, and insisted that I should 
leave her, and we waited for the heavy black clouds to lift 
off the moon; but the fore-deck lay dark ahead of us; and we 
could not tell whether the men who had fled had gone be- 
low, or were crouching behind the galley and the sky-lights 
of the fore-cabins. Nor could we hear any sound of them, 
although the skipper hailed them twice. He was for going 
forward at once; but we held back until the light came, 
and then by the full moon we saw dark shadows across 
the hatch. The men were behind the galley, as we thought 
— the eight of them. 

The skipper hailed them again. 

^‘You, Karl Williams— are you coming out now, for me 
to flog you; or will you swing at Hew York?” 

I could see their whole performance in shadow, as they 
heard the hail. One of them cocked a pistol, and the rest 
huddled more closely together. 

^^Very well,” continued the skipper, ironically deliberate. 
"'You’ve got a couple of planks between you and eternity. 
I’m going to fire through that galley.” 


no 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


He raised his rifle at the word, and let go straight at the 
corner of the light wood erection. A dull groan followed, 
and by the shadow on the deck I saw one man fall forward 
among the others, who held him up with their shoulders; 
hut his blood ran in a thick stream out to the top of the 
hatchway, and then ran back as the ship heaved to the 
seas. 

For the fifth time the skipper hailed them. 

^‘There’s one down among you,” he said; ^‘but that’s 
the beginning of it; I’m going to blow the shanty to hell, 
and you with it.” 

He raised his rifle, but as he did so one of them answered 
for the first time with his revolver, and the bullet sang above 
our heads. The skipper’s shot was quick in reply; and the 
wood of the shanty flew in splinters as the bullet shivered 
it. A second man sprang to his feet with a shout, and then 
fell across the deck, lying full to be seen in the moonlight. 

^‘That’s two of you,” continued the skipper, as calm as 
ever he was in Portsmouth harbor; ^Ve’ll make it three 
for luck.” But at the suggestion they all made a run for- 
ward, and lay flat right out by the cable. There we could 
hear them blubbering like children. 

The skipper was of a mind to end the thing there and 
then. He sprang down the ladder to the deck, and we 
followed him. They fired three shots as we rushed on 
them; but the butt ends of the two muskets did the rest. 
Three of them went down straight as felled poplars. The 
others fell upon their knees and implored mercy, and they 
got it, but not until the skipper, who now seemed roused to 
all the fury of great anger, set to kicking them lustily 
and with no discrimination — for they all had their full share 
of it. 

We had the other hands up by this, and, despite the 
tragedy and horror of the thing, a smile came to me as the 
true men set to binding the others at the skipper’s order; 
for Piping Jack and Planks, and the whole ten of them, fell 
into such a train of swearing as would have done your 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


Ill 


heart good to hear. They got them below at the first break 
of dawn, and the dead they covered; while Paolo, who lay 
groaning, we carried to a cabin in the saloon, and did for 
his broken head that which onr elementary knowledge of 
surgery permitted us. 

As the day brought light upon the rising sea, I looked 
to the far horizon, but the rolling crests of an empty waste 
met my gaze. Again we were alone. The night’s work had 
lost us the welcome company. 


8 


112 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


CHAPTEE XI. 

THE SHIP IN THE BLACK CLOAK. 

The day that broke was glorious enough for Nature’s 
making, hut sad upon our ship, in that the folly of eight 
poor fellows should have cost the lives of two, with three 
more lying near to death in the fo’castle. The sea had risen 
a good deal when we got under steam again, and clouds 
scudded over the sun; but we set stay-sail and jibs, and made 
a fine pace toward the shores of America. It was near noon 
when we had buried the two stokers shot by the skipper, 
and more on in the afternoon before the decks were made 
straight, and the traces of the scuffle quite obliterated. But 
Paolo lay all day in a delirium, and Mary went in and out, 
hearing a gentle hand to the wounded, who alternately cried 
with the pain of it, and begged grace for their insanity. 
The second officer’s case was worse than theirs, and I 
thought at noon that the total of the dead would have been 
three; for he raved incessantly, crying ‘Tee, ice!” almost 
with every breath, while we had all difficulty possible to 
hold him in his hunk. His words I could not get the 
meaning of; hut I had them later, and in circumstances 
I had never looked for. 

After the hour of lunch the skipper called Eoderick and 
me into his cabin, and there he discussed the position with 
us. 

“One thing is clear,” he said; “you’ve brought me on 
more than a pleasure trip, and, while I don’t complain, it 
will he necessary at New York for me to know something 
more — or, maybe to leave this ship. Last night’s work must 
be made plain, of course; and this second officer of yours 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


113 


must stand to his trial. The men I would willingly let go, 
for they’re no more than lubberly fools whose heads have 
been turned. But one thing I now make hold to claim — I 
take this yacht straight from here to Sandy Hook; and we 
poke our noses into no business on the way.” 

^^Of course,” said Eoderick, somewhat sarcastically, 
^^you’ve every right to do what you like with my ship; but 
I seem to remember having engaged you to obey my 
orders.” 

^Tair orders and plain sailing,” replied Captain York, 
bringing his fist down on the table with emphasis; ^^not 
running after war-ships that could blow us out of the water 
without thinking of it. Fair orders I took, and fair orders 
I’ll obey.” 

^^That’s quite right, Eoderick,” I said; ^There’s no reason 
now why we shouldn’t go straight on — if we don’t meet 
with anyone to ask questions on the way; of that I’m not 
so sure, though.” 

^^Hor I,” said the skipper, meaningly, and waiting for me 
to add more; but I did not mean to gratify him, and we all 
went out on deck again after we had agreed to let him have 
his will. We found the first officer on the bridge, looking 
away to the southeast, where the black hull of a steamer 
was now showing full. I do not know that the distant 
sight of a ship was anything to cause remark, but as I 
looked at her, I noticed that she steamed at a fearful speed, 
and she showed no smoke from her funnels. 

^^Skipper,” I said, ^^will you look at that hull? Isn’t the 
boat making uncommon headway?” 

He took a very long gaze, and then he spoke: 

You’re right. She’s going more than twenty knots.” 

^^And straight toward us!” 

^^As you say.” 

^Ts there anything remarkable about that?” 

He took another sight of her, and when he turned to me 
again he had no color in his face. 

‘T’ve seen that ship before,” he said. 


114 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


''Where?” asked Roderick laconically. 

"Five days ago, when she fired a shell into the Ocean 
King.” 

"In that case,” said I, "there isn’t much doubt about her 
intentions; she’s chasing us.” 

"That may or may not be,” he replied, as he raised his 
glass again, "but she’s the same ship. I’ll wager my life. 
Look at the rake of her— and the lubbers, they’ve left some 
of their bright metal showing amidships.” 

He indicated the deck-house by the bridge, where my 
glass showed me a shining spot in the cloak of black, for the 
sun fell upon the place, and reflected from it as from a 
mirror of gold. There was no longer any doubt: we were 
pursued by the nameless ship, and, if no help fell to us, I 
shuddered to think what the end might be. 

"What are you going to do, skipper?” asked Roderick, as 
gloom fell upon the three of us; and we stood together, each 
man afraid to tell the other all he thought. 

"What am I going to do?” said he. "I’m going to see 
the boats cleared, and all hands in the stoke-hole that have 
the right there;” and then he sang out, "Stand by!” and 
the men swarmed up from below, and heard the order to 
clear the boats. They obeyed unquestioningly; but I doubt 
not that they were no less uneasy than we were; and, as 
these things cannot be concealed, the whisper was soon 
amongst them that the danger lay in the black steamer, 
which had been five days ago the ship of gold. Yet they 
went to the work with a right good will; and presently, 
when a canopy of our own smoke lay over us, and the yacht 
bounded forward under the generosity of the stoking, they 
set up a great cheer spontaneously, and were ready for any- 
thing. Yet I, myself, could not share their honest bra- 
vado. The black ship which had been but a mark on the 
horizon now showed her lines fully: there could be no two 
opinions of her speed, or of the way in which she gained 
upon us. Indeed, one could not look upon her advance 
without envy of her form, or of the terrifying manner in 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


115 


which she cut the seas. Churning the foam until it mounted 
its banks on each side of her great ram, she rode the Atlan- 
tic like a beautiful yacht, with no vapor or smoke to float 
above her; and not so much as a sign that any engines forced 
her onward with a velocity unknown, I believe, in the whole 
history of navigation. And so she came straight in our 
wake, and I knew that we should have little breathing time 
before we should hear the barking of her guns. 

The skipper did not like to see my idleness or this display 
of inactive indifference. 

‘^Don’t you think you might help?” he asked. 

^^Help — what help can I give? — ^you don’t suppose we 
can outsteam them, do you?” 

^^That’s a child’s question; they’ll run us to a stand in 
four hours — any man with one eye should see that; but are 
you going down like a sheep, or will you give them a touch 
of your claws? I will, so help me Heaven, if there’s not 
another hand breathing!” 

‘‘The skipper’s right, by Jove!” said Eoderick; “if it’s 
coming to close quarters. I’ll mark one man anyway,” and 
with that he tumbled down the ladder, and into his cabin. 
I followed him, and got all the arms I could lay hands on, 
a couple of revolvers and a long duck-gun amongst the 
number. There were two rifles — the two we had used in 
the trouble with the men — ^in the chart-room, and these we 
brought on deck, with all the other pistols we had amongst 
us. We made a distribution of them amongst the old 
hands, giving Dan the duck-gun, which pleased him 
mightily. 

“I generally shoots ’em sitting,” he said, “but I’ll go for 
to make a bag, and willin’. You’re keepin’ the Missie out 
out of it, sir?” 

“Of course; she’s looking after the sick hands down- 
stairs. You go forward, Dan, and wait for the word, then 
blaze away your hardest.” 

“Ay, ay,” replied he; and I took myself off to see after 
the others, whom we posted in the stern to keep a closer 


116 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


lookout; while Eoderick, the first officer and myself went 
above to the bridge. 

The men now fell to the work in right good earnest. 
They had all the grit of the old sea dogs in them — ^how, I 
know not, except in this, that their lives had been given to 
the one mistress. The thought of a brush-up put dash 
and daring into them; they had the boats cleared, the water 
barrels filled, and the life-belts free, with an activity that 
was remarkable. Then they stood to watch the oncoming 
of the nameless ship; and when we hoisted our ensign they 
burst again into that hoarse roar of applause which rolled 
across the water waste, and must have sounded as a vaunting 
mockery to the men behind the walls of metal. But they 
answered us in turn, running up an ensign, and a cry came 
from all of us as we saw its color, for it was the blue saltire 
on a white ground. 

^^Russian, or I’m blind,” said the skipper, and I looked 
twice and knew that his sight was safe to him; for the 
nameless ship, which five days ago showed her heels under 
the Chilian mask, now made straight toward us in Russian 
guise. 

^^Are you sure she’s the same ship?” asked Roderick, 
when his amazement let him speak. 

'^Am I sure that my voice comes out of my throat?” said 
the old fellow testily. ^^Did you ever see but one hull 
shaped like that? And now she signals.” 

So rapidly had she drawn toward us that she was, indeed, 
then within gun-shot of us. After the first enthusiasm the 
men had stood, held under the spell of her amazing ap- 
proach, and no soul had spoken. Even with their plain 
reckoning and hazy notion of it all, they seemed conscious 
of the peril; but not as I was conscious of it, for in my own 
heart I believed that no man amongst us would see to- 
morrow. There we stood alone, with no prospect but to 
face the men who openly declared war against us. 1 turned 
my eyes away to the crimson arch which marked the sun’s 
decline; I looked again to the east, whence black harbingers 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


117 


of night hung low upon the darkened sea; I searched the 
horizon in every quarter, but it lay barren of ships, and soon 
the last light would leave us, and with the ebb of day there 
was no security against an enemy whose intentions were no 
longer disguised. I say no longer disguised — ^but of this the 
skipper made me cognizant. He pointed to the mast on 
the nameless ship, where the Eussian ensign had hung ten 
minutes before. It was there no longer; the black flag 
took its place. 

^Tirates, by the very devil said the skipper; and then 
he whistled long and loud and shrilly as a man who has 
solved a sum. 

‘^Gentlemen,” he added very slowly, H said I would 
resign this ship at New York; with your permission I will 
withdraw that. I will sail with you wherever you go.” 

He shook our hands heartily, as though the discovery of 
our purpose had unclouded his mind. But we had no time 
for fuller understanding, for at that moment the air itself 
seemed torn apart by a great concussion, and a shell burst 
in the water no more than fifty yards ahead of us. When 
the knowledge that we were not hit was sure on the men’s 
part, they bellowed lustily; and old Dan fired his gun into 
the air with a great shout. Yet we knew that all this was 
the cheapest bravado; and when the skipper touched the 
bell to stop our engines, I was sure that he was wise. 

^^That’s the end of it, then,” I said. ^‘Well, it’s pretty 
ignominious, isn’t it, to be shot down like fools on our own 
quarter-deck?” 

“Wait awhile,” he answered, looking anxiously behind 
him, where a mist gathered on the sea; “let ’em lower a 
boat, the lubbers!” 

By this time the great vessel rode still some quarter of a 
mile away from us; but the glass showed me the men upon 
her decks, and conspicuous amongst them I saw the form of 
Captain Black standing by the steam steering gear. Others 
below were moving at the davits, so that in a small space a 
launch was riding in the still sea, and was making for us* 


118 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


I watched her with nerves strained and lips dry; she seemed 
to me the message boat from Death itself. 

^‘Stand steady and wait for me!” suddenly yelled the 
skipper, his fingers moving nervously, and his look continu- 
ally turning to the hanks of mist behind us. ^^When I sing 
Tire!’ pick your men!” 

The boat was so near that you could see the faces in it; 
and three of the five I recognized, for I had seen them in 
the room of the Rue Joubert. The others were not known 
to me, but had rascally countenances; and one of them was 
a Chinaman’s, The man who was in command was the 
fellow ^Toaring John;” and when he was within hail he 
stood up and bawled: 

^ ‘mat ship?” 

“My ship!” roared back the skipper, again looking at 
the mist-clouds, and my heart gave a bound when I read 
his purpose; we were drifting into them. 

“And who may you be?” bawled the fellow again, grow- 
ing more insolent with every advance. 

“I’m one that will give you the best hiding you ever had, 
if you’ll step up here a minute!” yelled the skipper, as cool 
as a man in Hyde Park. 

“Oh, I guess,” said the man; “you’re a tarnation fine 
talker, ain’t you ? But you’ll talk less when I come aboard 
you, oh, I reckon!” 

They came a couple of oars’ lengths nearer, when Captain 
York made his reply. There was a fine roll of confidence 
in his voice, and he almost lahghed when he cried: 

“You’re coming aboard, are you? And which of you shall 
I have the pleasure of kicking first?” 

The hulking ruffian roared with pleasant laughter at the 
sally. 


“Oh, you’re a funny cuss, ain’t you, and pretty with your 
jaw, by thunder! But it’s me that you’ll have the 
pleasure of speaking to, and right quick, my mate, oh, you 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


119 


‘‘In that case,” said the skipper, with his calmness well 
at zero; “in that case — ^you, Dan! introduce yourself to the 
gentleman.” 

Dan’s reply was instantaneous. He leaned well over 
the bulwark, and his cheery old face beamed as he 
bellowed: 

“Ahoy, you there that it’s me pleasure to be runnin’ 
against so far from me old country. Will you have it hot, 
or will you have it the other way for a parcel of cold-livered 
lubbers? By the Old ’Un, how’s that for salt ’oss!” 

He had up with his shot gun, and the long ruffian, who 
had reached forward with his boat-hook, got the full dose 
in the face, as it seemed to me. At the same moment the 
skipper called “Fire!” and the heavy crack of the rifles and 
the sharp report of the pistols rang out together. The very 
launch itself seemed to reel under the volley; but the 
Chinaman gave a great shout, and jumped into the sea with 
the agony of his wound; while two of the others were 
stretched out in death as they sat. 

“Full steam ahead!” roared Captain York, as the name- 
less ship replied with a shell that grazed our chart-room. 
“Full speed ahead!” Then, shaking his fist to the war-ship, 
he almost screamed, “Bested for a parcel of cut-throats, by 
the Powers.” 

There was no doubt about it at all. The moment the 
yacht answered to the screw the fog rolled round us like a 
sheet, in thick wet clouds, steaming damp on the decks; 
and twenty yards ahead or astern of us you could not see 
the long waves themselves. But the sensations of that five 
minutes I shall never forget. Shot after shot hissed and 
splashed ahead of us, behind us; now dull, heavy, yet 
penetrating, and we knew that the ship lay close on our 
track; then further off and deadened, and we hoped that she 
had lost us. Again dreadfully close, so that a shell struck 
the chart-room full, and crushed it into splinters not bigger 
than your finger, then dying away to leave the stillness of 
the mist behind it. An awful chase, enduring many mm- 


120 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


utes; a chase when I went hot and cold, now filled with 
hope, then seeming to stand on the very brink of death. But 
at last the firing ceased. We left our course, steaming 
for some hours due south across the very track of the name- 
less ship; and we went headlong into the fog, the men 
standing yet at their posts, no soul giving a thought to the 
lesser danger that was begotten of our speed; every one of 
us held in that strange after-tension which follows upon 
calamity. 

When I left the bridge it was midnight. I was soaked 
to the skin and nigh frozen, and the water ran even from 
my hair, but a hot hand was put into mine as I entered 
the cabin, and then a thousand questions rained upon me. 

^‘I’ll tell you by-and-by, Mary. Were you very much 
afraid?” 

She tossed her head and seemed to think, 
was a bit afraid, Mark — a — a — ^little bit!” 

^'And what did you do all the time?” 

— oh, I nursed Paolo — ^he’s dying.” 

The man truly lay almost at death^s door; but his de- 
lirium had passed, and he slept, muttering in his dream, 
can^t go to the city — Black; you know it — ^let me get 
aboard. Hands off! I told you the job was risky.” And 
he tossed and turned and fell into troubled slumber. And 
I could not help a thought of sorrow, for I feared that he ^ 
would hang if ever we set foot ashore. 

I returned to the saloon sadly, though all was now 
brightness there. We served out grog liberally for the 
forward hands, and broke champagne amongst us. 

^^Gentlemen,” said the skipper, giving us the toast, ^^you 
owe your lives to the Banks; and, please God, I’ll see you 
all in Hew York before three days.” 

And he kept his word; for we sighted Sandy Hook, and 
harm had come to no man that fought the unequal fight. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


121 


CHAPTER XII. 

THE DRINKING HOLE IN THE BOWERY. 

The beauty of the entrance to the Bay of Hew York, the 
amazing medley of shipping activity and glorious scenery, 
have often been described. Even to one who comes upon 
the capital of the New World, having seen many cities and 
many men, there is a charm in the sweeping woods and the 
distant heights, in the group of islets, and the massive 
buildings, that is hardly rivaled by the fascinations of any 
other harbor, that of San Francisco and the (Golden Gates 
alone excepted. If you grant that tlie mere material of 
man’s making is all very new, its power and dignity is no 
less impressive. Nor in any other city of the world that I 
know does the grandeur of the natural environment force 
itself so close to the very gates as in this bay which Hudson 
claimed, and a Dutch colony took possession of so long ago 
^ as 1614. 

It was about six o’clock in the evening when we brought 
the Celsis through the Narrows between Staten and Long 
Islands, and passed Forts Wandsworth and Hamilton. Then 
the greater harbor before the city itself rolled out upon 
our view; and as we steamed slowly into it the Customs 
took possession of us, and made their search. It was a 
short business, for we satisfied them that Paolo suffered 
from no malignant disease, although one small and singu- 
larly objectionable fellow seemed suspicious of everything 
aboard us. I do not wonder that he made the men angry, 
or that Dan had a word with him. 

“Look here, sir,” he whispered, making pretense to great 
honesty; “I won’t go for to deceive you — p’r’aps that dog’s 


122 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


stuffed wi’ di’monds.” 

you reckon I’m a fool?” asked the man. 

^^Well,” said old Dan, never was good at calcerlations; 
but you search that dog, and p’r’aps you’ll find somethin’.” 

The man seemed to think a moment; hut Dan looked so 
very solemn, and Belle came sniffing up at the officer’s legs, 
so he passed his hand over her back, and lost some of his 
leg in return. 

^^Didn’t I tell you,” said Dan, ^^as you’d get something if 
you searched that dog? Well, don’t you go for to doubt 
me word next time we’re meetin’. Good-day to yer honor. 
Is there any other animal as I could oblige you with?” 

The officer went off, the men howling with laughter; and 
a short while after we had made fast at the landing-stage, 
and were ready to go ashore. 

Paolo still lay very sick in his cabin, and we determined 
in common charity to take no action until he had his health 
again; but we set the men to keep a watch about the place, 
and for ourselves went off to dine at the Fifth Avenue 
Hotel. There, before a sumptuous dinner, and with all 
the novelty of the new scene, we nigh forgot all that hap- 
pened since the previous month: when, without thought 
of adventure or of future, we had gone to Paris with the 
aimless purpose of the idle traveler. And, indeed, I did 
my best to encourage this spirit of forgetfulness, since 
through all the new enjoyment I could not but feel that 
danger surrounded us on every hand, and that I was but 
just embarked on that great mission I had undertaken. 

In this mood, when dinner was done, I suggested that 
Eoderick should take Mary through the city awhile, and 
that I should get back to the Celsis, there to secure what 
papers were left for me, and to arrange, after thought, what 
my next step in the following of Captain Black should be. 
The skipper had friends to see in Hew York, and agreed 
that he would follow me to the yacht in a couple of hours, 
and that he would meet the others in the hotel after they 
had come from their excursion. This plan fell in with my 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


123 


own, and I said ^'Good-bye’’ cheerfully enough to the three 
men as I buttoned up my coat, and sent for a coach. If I 
had known then that the next time I should meet them 
would be after weeks of danger and of peril, of sojourn in 
strange places, and of life amongst terrible men! 

I was driven to the wharf very quickly, and got aboard 
the yacht with no trouble. There was a man keeping watch 
upon her decks, and Dan had been in the sick man’s cabin 
taking drink to him. He told me that he was more easy, 
and spoke with the full use of his senses; and that he had 
fallen off into a comfortable sleep ^^since an hour.” I was 
glad at the news, and went to my own cabin, getting my 
papers, my revolver, and other things that I might have 
need of ashore. 

This work occupied me forty minutes or more; but as I 
was ready to go back to the others I looked into Paolo’s 
cabin, and, somewhat to my surprise, I saw that he was 
dressed, and seemingly about to quit the yacht. This dis- 
covery set me aglow with expectation. If the man were 
going ashore, whither could he go except to his associates, to 
those who were connected with Black and his crew? Was 
not that the very clue I had been hoping to get since I 
knew that we had a spy aboard us? Otherwise, I might 
wait a year and hear no more of the man or of his work 
except such tidings as should come from the sea. Indeed, 
my mind was made up in a moment; I would follow Paolo, 
at any risk, even of my life. 

This thought sent me forward again into the fo’castle, 
where Dan was. 

^^Hist, Dan!” said I, ^%ive me a man’s rig-out — a jersey 
and some breeches and a cap — quick,” and, while the old 
fellow stared and whistled softly, I helped to ransack his 
box; and in a trice I had dressed myself, putting my pistols, 
my papers, and my money in my new clothes; but leaving 
everything else in a heap on the floor. 

“Dan,” I said, “that Italian is going ashore, and I’m 
going to follow him. Ho, you musn’t come, or the thing 


124 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


will be spoiled. Tell the forward look-out to see nothing if 
the fellow passes, and get my rubber shoes from my trunk.” 

Dan scratched his head again, and must have thought 
that I was qualifying in lunacy; but he got the shoes, and 
not a moment too soon, for, as I came on deck, I saw a 
shadow on the gangway. The man was leaving the yacht 
at that moment, and I followed him, drawing my cap right 
over my eyes, and lurking behind every inch of cover. 

Once out into the city, and having turned two or three 
times to satisfy himself that he had no one after him, 
Paolo struck for Broadway; thence with staggering gait, 
the result of his weakness, he made straight for the City 
Hall, at which point he turned and so got into Chatham 
Street and the Bowery. At last, after a long walk, and 
when the man himself was almost falling from the exertion 
of it, he stopped before an open door in the dirtiest of the 
streets through which we had come, and disappeared in- 
stantly. I came up to the door almost as soon as he had 
passed through, and found myself before a steep flight of 
steps, at the bottom of which, through a glass partition, I 
could see men smoking and drinking, and hear them bawl- 
ing uncouth songs. 

It was a fearful hole, peopled by fearful men; all nations 
and all sorts of villains were represented there; low Eng- 
lishmen, Frenchmen, Eussians, even niggers and Chinamen; 
yet into that hole must I go if I would follow Paolo to 
the end. 

You may forgive me if I hesitated a moment; waited to 
balance up the odds upon my recognition. I might have 
decided even then that the risk was too great, the certainty 
of discovery too palpable; but at that moment a party of 
six hulking seamen descended the steps before me, and, 
taking advantage of the cover of their shoulders, I pulled 
my cap right over my face and passed through the swinging 
door with them into the most dangerous-looking place I 
have ever set foot in. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


125 


The room was long and narrow; banked its whole length 
by benches that had once been covered with red velvet, but 
now showed torn patches and the protruding wool of the 
stuffing. Mirrors were raised from the dado of the ragged 
seats to the frieze of the smoke-blackened ceiling; hut they 
were for the most part cracked, and some had lost much of 
their glass. The accommodation for drinkers consisted of 
marble-topped tables, old and worn and stained with the 
dirt which was characteristic everywhere of the foul den; 
but there was nothing but boards beneath one’s feet; and 
the wretched bar at the uppermost end of the chamber was 
no more than a plain deal bin with a high stool behind it 
for the serving-man, he being a great negro grotesquely 
attired as a man of fashion. Indeed, had not the whole 
promise of the place been so threatening, I should have 
paused to laugh at this dusky scoundrel, whose white hat 
sat jauntily on the side of his woolly head, and whose 
well-cut black coat was ornamented with a great bunch of 
white flowers. But there was evil in this man’s face, and 
in the faces of the others who sat close packed upon the 
faded couches; and when I had paused for a moment to 
take reckoning of the room, I passed quickly to a bench near 
the door, and there sat wedged against a fair-haired sea- 
man, whose look stamped him to be a Eussian. 

The scene was very new to me. I had heard of these 
drinking dens in that low quarter of New York called the 
Bowery; but my American friends had cautioned me often 
to have no truck with them should I visit their city. They 
spoke of the poor regard for life which prevailed there; of 
murders committed with an impunity which was as as- 
tounding as it was impossible for the police to suppress; of 
mysterious disappearances, mysterious alone in the lack of 
knowledge as to the victim’s end; and they conjured me, if 
I would see such things, at least to go under the escort of 
the police. All this I had paid scant attention to at the 
time; but the reality was before me with its grim terror. 
The room was filled with the scum of sea-going humanity; 


126 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


foul smoke from foul pipes floated in choking clouds to the 
dirt-begrimed ceiling; great brown pots of strong drink 
were emptied as though their contents had been milk; 
horrid blasphemies were uttered as choice dishes of speech; 
ribald songs rose in giant discord as the spirit moved the 
singers. Now and again, betwixt the shouting and the 
singing, a young girl, whose presence in such a company 
turned my heart sick, played upon a harp, while to serve 
the crew with liquor there was a mahogany-faced hag 
whom the men addressed as ^^Mother Catch.’’ An old 
crone, bent and doubled like a bow, yet vigorous in her 
work, and shuffling with quick steps as she laid down the 
jugs, or took the uncouth orders so freely given to her, she 
seemed to have the eye of a hawk; nor did I escape her 
glance, for I had not been seated before the marble table 
a moment when she shuffled up to me and stood glaring 
with her shining eyes, the very presentment of an old-time 
witch. 

^^Ha!” she said sharply, ‘ffla! a sailor boy in proper sailor 
clothes; ho, little man, will ye wet yer throat for a pretty 
gentleman?” 

I did not like her mock courtesy, or the way in which 
she pronounced the word ^^gentleman”; but I called for 
some beer to get her away, and when she brought it I re- 
membered that I had no American money; but I put an 
English florin before her and waited for the change. She 
hissed at the sight of it like a serpent about to strike. 

^^Ha! Englishman! and no money. Ho, ho! ye’ve got to 
find it, little man. Mother Catch likes you; but she spits 
on it!” 

She spoke the last words in such a loud voice that several 
men near me turned to look, and I feared to become the 
center of a brawl. This would have defeated everything, 
so I threw her a half-sovereign, and, feigning her own 
savage merriment, I said: 

^'Gold, little woman, English gold; spit on it for luck, 
little woman;” and I am bound to say that she did so, 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


127 


hobbling out of the room with the gold-piece clenched in 
her nut-cracker jaws. Then I began to search with my 
eyes for Paolo; and, although the smoke was very thick, I 
saw him seated near the drinking-bar, a tumbler of brandy 
before him, his arms resting on the edge of the counter 
where the liquor was sold. I judged then that he* had 
made no idle visit to this place; and in a quarter of an hour 
or so my surmise was proved. The glass door again swung 
open; three men entered through it, and I recognized the 
three of them in a moment. The first was the Irishman, 
^Tour-Eyes^’; the second was the lantern- jawed Scotsman, 
who had been addressed in Paris as ^‘Dick the Ranter”; the 
third was ^^Roaring John,” into whose face Dan had emptied 
the contents of his duck-gun three days before. The ruf- 
fian had his mouth all bound in a bloody rag, so I hugged 
myself at the knowledge that he had been well hit; but he 
was in nowise depressed; and, although the gun had 
stopped his speech, he smacked Paolo on the back when he 
greeted him, and the others soon had their faces in the 
great brown jugs. 

The sight of this company warmed me to the work. I 
seemed to stand on the threshold of discovery. If only I 
could follow them hence to Black’s house the whole aim of 
my journey would be fulfilled. And why not? I said; they 
will leave this place and go to their leader sometime — ^if 
not now, at least to-morrow; and why should I lose touch 
with them? So far it was certain that my presence was 
undiscovered. The hag had suspicion of me, but not in 
their way. The men were too busy, I thought, talking of 
their own affairs to meddle even with their neighbors. Dan 
knew on what business I had left the ship, and would 
quiet Roderick’s alarm for me. It was plain that fortune 
had turned kindly eyes on me. 

I sat sipping the beer and smoking an old clay pipe, 
which I found in the breast pocket of Dan’s, garment, doing 
these things to escape the remarks which the neglect of 
them would have occasioned, when there was some change 


0 


128 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


in the bibulous entertainment as yet provided for us in the 
drink-hole. The hag raised her voice, worn to a croak 
with long scolding, and shrieked: 

^^Jack’s a-going to dance for ye! Silence, pretty hoys. 
Ho! ho! Jack the Fire-Devil, will ye listen then? And it’s 
help me move the tables ye will, Master Dick, or ye’re no 
minister that I took ye for. Back, my pretty gentlemen, 
lest I throw me vitriol on ye. Ha! hut they love me like 
their own mother!” 

She poked round with her stick at the seamen’s feet, 
compelling them to fall hack, and to make a ring for the 
dancer in the center; and I saw with no satisfaction that 
the foul-mouthed villain who was called the “Eanter” came 
to give her his help to the work. 

^‘Hoots, mither,” he cried, in his broadest Scots, ^^did 
ye mistake that I was a gentleman frae the Hielands o’ 
honnie Scotland? And I’ll he verra glad to throttle some 
for a wee cup o’ yer pretty poison. So ho! ye lubbers, it’s 
an ower-fine discoors for a summer Sawhath that my hoot 
will teach you. Mak’ way, mak’ way!” 

Thus, with unctuous mockery and rough menace, the 
fellow followed the fury round the room, and forced the 
drunken crew to the wall. He came to my seat; hut I 
buried my head in my hands, lest he should have carried 
the memory of my face from Paris; and he passed, having 
taken no notice of me, as I hoped. Soon he had made a 
great ring for the dancing; and one of the long mirrors 
opened, showing a door, whose existence I had not sus- 
pected, and a great negro with a flaming fire-pot entered the 
room. His entry brought applause; but he was a common 
quack of a performer at the beginning, for he made pre- 
tense to eat the fire, and to bring it up again from his 
vitals. Then, to some wild music from a fiddler, he bound 
coils of the flaming stuff about his head; and, the lamps 
being lowered, he gave us a weird picture of a man dancing 
all circled with flame; working himself up until I recalled 
pictures of the dervishes I had seen in the old quarter of 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


129 


Cairo. It was an extraordinary exhibition, and it pleased 
the men about so that they roared with delight. I was 
watching it at last as intent as they were; but my attention 
was suddenly diverted by the sense that something under 
the marble table at which I sat was pulling at my leg. I 
looked down quickly, and saw a strange sight; it was the 
black face of the lad Splinters, who had been treated so 
brutally in Paris. He, crouching under the table, was 
making signs to me, earnest, meaning signs, so that without 
any betrayal I leaned my head down as though upon my 
hands, and spoke to him: 

^^What is it, lad?” I asked in a whisper. ^^What do you 
want to say?” 

^^Don’t stop here, sir!” he answered, in a state of great 
agitation. ^^They know you, and are going to kill you!” 

He said no more, crawling away at once; but he left me 
hot with fear. The mad dance was still going on, and the 
room was quite dark, save for the glow cast by the spirit 
flames about the huge negro. It occurred to me at once 
that the darkness might save me if only I could reach the 
door unobserved; and I left my seat, and pushed amongst 
the men, passing nearer and nearer to the street, until at 
last I was at the very portal itself. Then I saw that a 
change had been made wdiile I had been sitting. The doors 
of glass were wide open, but the way to the street without 
was no longer clear — an iron curtain had been drawn across 
the entrance, and a hundred men could not have forced it. 

This was a terrible discovery. It seemed to me that the 
iron door had been closed for an especial purpose. I knew, 
however, that when the dance was over some of the audience 
would wish to go out, and so I waited by the curtain until 
the lamps were turned up, and the negro had disappeared. 
The men were then about to push their tables to the center 
again, but the hag raised her voice and cried: 

^^As you are, my pretty gentlemen; it’s only the first 
part ye’ve been treated to. Ho, no; ye don’t have the door 
drawn till ye’ve seen yer mother dance awhile. Good boys. 


130 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


all of ye, there’s work to do; ho! ho! work to do, and 
Mother Catch will do it!” 

At the words ^Vork to do” a strange silence, which I 
did not then understand, fell on the company. Somehow, 
all the men immediately around me slunk away, and I found 
myself standing quite alone, with many staring at me. The 
four men whom most I feared had turned their backs, and 
were busy with their mugs; hut the rest of the assembly 
had eyes only for the terrible woman and for myself. Pres- 
ently the discordant music began again. The hag, who 
had been bent double, reared herself up with a ^^Ho!” after 
the fashion of a Scottish sword-dancer, and began to make 
a wretched shuffle with her feet. Then she moved with a 
hobble and a jig to the far end of the room; and she called 
out, beginning to come straight down to the door whereby 
I stood. I know not what presentiment forewarned me to 
beware as the creature drew near; but yet I felt the danger, 
and the throbbing of my heart. That I could hope for 
help amongst such a crew was out of the question. I had 
my revolver in my pocket, but had I shown it twenty barrels 
would have answered tl^ folly. There was nothing to do 
but to face the screeching woman; and this I did as the 
unearthly music became louder, and the stillness of the 
men was speaking in its depth. 

At the last, the old witch, who had danced for some 
moments at a distance of ten paces from the spot where I 
stood, became as one possessed. She made a few dreadful 
antics, uttered a piercing shriek, and hurled herself almost 
on me. In that instant I remember seeing the three men 
with Paolo suddenly rise to their feet, while the others in 
the room called out in their excitement. But the hag 
herself drew from her breast something that she had con- 
cealed there; and, as she stood within a yard of me, she 
brought it crash upon my head, and all my senses left me. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


131 




CHAPTER XIII. 

ASTERN OF THE “LABRADOR.” 

Complete unconsciousness is a blessing, I think, which 
comes rarely to us. Sleep, they say, is akin to death; yet 
I have often questioned if there be an absolute void of 
existence in sleep; and I am sure that in few cases where 
a blow robs us of sense does the brain cease to be active or 
to bring dreams in its working. I have been struck down 
unconscious twice in my life; but in each instance I have 
suffered much during the after-days from that trouble of 
mind which is akin to the feverish dream of an exhausted 
system. Horrid sights does the brain then bear to us; 
terrible situations; weird phantoms known to the opium- 
eater; wild struggles with unnatural enemies; wrestlings 
even for existence itself. All these I knew during the 
days that followed my rash visit to the drinking-den. How 
long I lay, or where, I know not to this hour; but my 
dreams were very terrible, and there was a fever at my 
head which the ice of a great lake scarce could have cooled. 
Often I would know that I had consciousness, and yet I 
could not move hand or foot, so that the terror moved me to 
frenzies of agony, though my lips were sealed, and I felt 
myself passing to death. Or I would live again through 
the night when Martin Hall died, and from the boat where 
I watched the holocaust I climbed to the shrouds of the 
cutter, and stood with my poor friend in the very shelter 
of the spreading flames. Or I struggled with Black, having 
hunted him to his own quarter-deck, and there with great 
force of men I sought to lay hands on him; but he escaped 


132 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


me with a mocking laugh, and when I looked again the 
deck was empty. 

For short moments the delirium must have left me. Once 
I opened my eyes, and knew that the sun shone upon me, 
and that the breeze which cooled my forehead blew from 
the sea; but my fatigue was so great that I fell asleep in 
the next instant, and enjoyed pure rest during many hours. 
When I regained consciousness for the second time, it was 
because rain beat upon my face, a drizzli ag, warm rain of 
late summer, and there was spray from a fresh sea. For 
some minutes I set myself to ask where 1 was; but I knew 
that I was bound at the left hand and at my feet, and, to 
my unutterable astonishment, when I raised my head I 
saw that I lay in an open boat which was moving very 
slowly, but my feet were toward the stern of it, and, as my 
head lay below the level of the gunwale, I could see nothing 
of the power which moved the boat or of the scene about us. 

It was a long time before my throbbing head let me put 
together a chain of thought to account for my position. 
The scene at the drinking-den would not at first come back 
to me, think as I would; but when it did, the clue which 
was lacking came with it. There could be no doubt that I 
had walked into a trap, and that the hag who had struck 
me had been in the pay of Paolo and his crew. These men 
must have taken me as I lay, and so brought me to this 
boat; but what time had intervened, or where I was, I 
knew no better than the dead. Only this was sure, that I 
was in the hands of one of the greatest scoundrels living, 
and that, if his past were any precedent, my hours of life 
would be few. 

I cannot tell you why it was, but, strange to say, this 
refieetion did not give me very great alarm at the moment. 
Perhaps I suffered too much from bodily weakness, and 
would have welcomed any release, even death; perhaps I 
was buoyed up with that eternal hope which bears its most 
generous blossom in the springtime of life. In either case, 
I put away the thought of danger, and set to the task of 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


133 


conning my position a little more closely. The boat in 
which I lay was painted white, and was of elegant build. 
She had all the fine lines of a yacht’s jolly-boat; and when 
I raised my head I could see that her fittings had been put 
in only at great expense. She was not a large boat, but 
the center seat had been removed from her to let me lie on 
a tarpaulin which covered her keel, and the stern seat had 
been used to bind my feet. A second tarpaulin, folded 
twice, had been propped under my head, but my left hand 
was bound close to the bow thwart, and there was a rope 
doubled round my right forearm so that I could not raise 
myself an inch, though my right hand was free. The 
meaning of this apparent neglect I soon learned. There 
was a flask on the edge of the tarpaulin which supported 
my head, and by it half a dozen rather fine captain’s bis- 
cuits. I had a prodigious thirst on me, and I drank from 
the flask; but found it to contain weak brandy, and would 
willingly have exchanged thrice its contents for a long 
draught of pure water. But the biscuits I could not touch; 
and I began to be chilled with the rain, which fell copiously, 
and with the sea, which sent spray in fountains upon my 
body. 

Up to this time I had heard no sound of human voices, 
but the silence was broken at last by a shout, and the boat 
ceased to move. 

‘^All hands, make sail!” cried someone, apparently above 
me; and after that I heard the ^^yo-heave” of the men 
hauling, as I judged, at a mainsail. The second order, 
^‘^Sheets home!” proved to me that I was behind a sailing 
ship, perhaps a yacht which these men had secured as they 
got La France — and burned her. I shuddered at the sec- 
ond thought, and my head began to burn again despite the 
wet. Did they mean to leave me there until the end of it, 
when the cold and my wound should do their work? Had 
they forgotten me? Had they any reason for keeping me 
alive? My questions were in part answered by a sudden 
shout from the deck of the ship. 


134 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


^‘Ho, Bill, is the young ’un gone?” 

"No, my hearty, he’s gone about!” 

"Getting his spirits damped, I reckon.” 

"Some, you bet.” 

And then I heard a voice I knew, the voice of the Irish- 
man, "Four-Eyes.” 

"Is it the boi ye’re mindin’, bedad?” 

"Ay, sir, he’s moved a point.” 

"The poor divil. Throw him a sheet, one av yer; it’s 
meself that’s not bringing the guvner a dead body when he 
wants a live one, be Saint Pathrick!” 

They tried to throw me a sheet as the man had ordered, 
but we had begun to move rapidly again, and I heard it fall 
in the water by my head. Though there was more hailing, 
the thud of the choppy sea against the boat forbade any 
more hearing, and the sheet never reached me. Yet the 
men had told me something with their words, and I pon- 
dered long on the remark of the Irishman that the "guvner” 
wanted me alive. It explained much; and it put beyond 
doubt the reason why I had not been killed in the drinking- 
pen. It was quite clear that my life was safe from these 
men until they reached their chief; but where he was I 
had no notion, except he were on the nameless ship; and, 
if that were so, to the nameless ship I was going — that ship 
of horror and of mystery. Nor could I remember anything 
in what I knew of Captain Black to lead me to the hope 
that such a voyage was other than one to death, and perhaps 
to that which might be worse than death itself. 

When this strange progression had lasted about an hour, 
the rain ceased and the sun shone again with renewed 
power, drjdng my clothes upon me, and giving me prodi- 
gious thirst. I struggled to reach the flask, and in doing 
so I found that the ropes binding my right arm were tied 
with common hitches, such as any sailor could force; and 
my experience as a yachtsman let me get free of them with 
very little trouble. I did not sit up at once, for I feared 
to be seen from the decks; but I turned my head to look 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


135 


at the boat which towed me, and saw that she was a bark- 
rigged yacht after the American fashion, her name, Labra- 
dor, being conspicuous across her stem. My boat, which 
was no larger than I had thought, was towed by a double 
hawser; but no man watched me from the poop, and I lay 
down again reassured. The hope of escape was already in 
my head, for I judged that we could not be far out from 
New York, although no land was visible on the horizon. It 
occurred to me that if they would only let me be until 
night I could get my left hand and my feet free; and, as 
the hawser was passed through a ring at the bow, I needed 
but a knife to complete the business. But I had no knife, 
for a search in my pockets proved that I had been relieved 
of all my valuables and trifles; and I knew that another way 
must be found, and that ingenuity alone would help me. 
So I sat thinking; and all the long afternoon — I knew it 
was afternoon, as I saw the sun sinking in the horizon and 
heard the bells, moreover — I examined such devices as came 
to me, only to reject them and to seek for others. 

Toward the second bell in the second ^^dog” there was a 
change in the monotony of the scene. I heard an order to 
heave the bark to, and presently I made haste to put the 
ropes back in their places and to await the happening. I 
felt all motion cease, and then someone hauling at the 
hawser, so that the jolly-boat was pulled against the side 
of the bigger ship; and, looking up, I saw half a dozen of 
Black’s gang watching me from the quarter-deck. Then a 
ladder was put over the bulwark, and Four-Eyes himself 
cried out, not in an unkindly tone: 

^^Gi-me the soop, bhoys, and let’s get it in him; begorra, 
the divil’ll have him afore the skipper if it’s no mate you’re 
givin’ him.” 

He came down the ladder with a great can of steaming 
stuff; and the sea having fallen away with the sun to a 
dead calm, he stepped off the ladder to the stern seat, and 
then bent over me. But I saw this only, that he had a 
knife in his belt; and I made up my mind in a momeijt to 
get it from him, 


136 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


'The young ’un from Paris,” he cried, as he took a long 
look at me, "and near to axin’ for a priest, by the houly 
saints; but I was tellin’ ye to stop where ye was, and it’s 
no thanks ye were giving me. Bedad, and a pretty place 
ye’re going to, sorr, at your own wish — ^the divil knows 
what’s the end av it — ^but sup a hit, for it’s fastin’ ye are 
by the luk av ye, and long gone at that!” 

Kindly words he gave me; and he held to the rope with 
one hand while he put the can of hot stuff to my lips with 
the other. I drank half of it with great gulps, feeling the 
warmth spread through my body to my very toes as the 
broth went down; and a great hope consoled me, for I had 
his knife, having snatched it from him when first he stooped, 
and it lay in the tarpaulin beneath me. The good luck of 
the theft made me quick to empty the pot of gravy; and 
when I had returned the can, Pour-Eyes went over the side 
again, and the yacht moved onward lazily in the softest of 
breezes from the west. But my boat lay behind her again, 
and I did not stir from my restful position until it was full 
dark; though the going down of the sun had left a clear 
night and a zenith richly set with a shimmer of stars, which 
did not give any great promise to my thoughts of coming 
freedom. 

When I deemed that I had waited long enough, and had 
assured myself that the later night would not be more aus- 
picious for the attempt, I cut away the remaining ropes at 
my feet> and crouched unbound in the boat. There was 
good watch upon the ship, I knew, for I could hear the 
"All’s well!” as the bells were struck, and the passing of 
the orders from the poop to the fo’castle. This did not 
deter me; and, being determined to stake all rather than 
face the terrors of the nameless ship, I crawled to the bow, 
and began to cut the strands of the hawser one by one. 
The rope was very thick and hard, and the knife which I 
had stolen was blunt, so that the work was prodigiously 
slow and difficult; and when I had been at it for half an 
hour or more, I was interrupted in a way that sent my heart 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


137 


almost into my mouth. There was a man standing on the 
poop of the Labrador, and he seemed to he watching my 
occupation. I threw myself flat instantly, and listened to 
his hail. 

''Ahoy there, young 'un, are you getting a chill?’" cried 
a bluff voice, which I did not recognize; hut presently the 
man Four-Eyes hailed also, and I heard him say: 

"If it’s dead ye are, will ye he sending word up to us?” 
and, seeing the mood, I bawled with all my strength: 

"I’m all right; but I’ll call out for some more of that 
soup of yours just now.” 

They gave a great shout, and one of them said: 

"You ken calcerlate ez you will he gettin’ it all nice en’ 
hot when you meet the old ’un in the mornin’;” and the 
crew roared with laughter at the sally, and disappeared 
one by one from the poop. Then I whipped out my knife 
again, and with a few vigorous strokes I cut the rope clean 
through, and felt my boat go swirling away on the hack- 
swash. It was a moment of supreme excitement, and I 
lay quite flat, waiting to hear if I were missed; hut I heard 
no sound, and looking around me presently, I saw the yacht 
away a mile, and I knew that I was a free man. 

The delight of the enterprise would have been intense 
if my unexpected success had not allowed me to forget one 
thing when I had made my hasty plans. There were no 
oars in the boat. The terrible truth came to me as I fixed 
the seat and prepared to put greater distance between the 
Labrador and myself. But one look round convinced me 
that the position was hopeless. With the exception of the 
tarpaulins, the seats, and the tiller, the boat was unfur- 
nished. As I thought of these things, and remembered 
that I was some hundreds of miles from land, that I had a 
couple of biscuits for fbod, and half a flask of brandy and 
water for drink, I experienced a terror greater than any I 
have known; and so weak was I with sickness and so low 
with the disappointment of it, that I put my head between 
my hands and sobbed like a great child who has known a 


138 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


childish sorrow. Only when the tears had dried upon my 
face, and there was that after-sense of resignation which 
follows a nervous outbreak, did I upbraid myself for a weak- 
ling, and set to think out plans for my release. I had no 
compass, but, taking the north through the ^^pointers,” I 
tried to make out the course in which I was drifting; yet 
this, I must confess, was a hopeless task. I thought that 
the boat was being carried by a steady current; yet whether 
the current set toward the land or away from it, I could 
not tell. 

When a couple of hours had passed, and I could see the 
yacht no longer, I took a new consolation in the thought 
that I must, after all, be in the track of steamers bound ont 
from, or to, New York; and in this hope I covered myself 
in the tarpaulins and lay down again to shield myself from 
the wind, which blew with much sharpness as the night 
grew. I did not sleep, but lay half dazed for an hour or 
more, and was roused only at a curious light which flashed 
above me in the sky. Its first aspect led me to the conclu- 
sion that I saw a reflection of the Aurora; but a second 
flash altered the opinion. The light was clearly focused, 
being a volume of intensely bright, white rays which passed 
right above me with slow and guided motion, and then 
stopped altogether, almost fixed upon the jolly-boat. I 
knew then what it was, and I sat up to see the great beams 
of a man-of-war’s searchlight, showing an arc of the water 
almost as clear as by the sun’s power. The vessel itself I 
could not make out; but I feared at once that fate had sent 
me straight to the nameless ship; and that the very mis- 
fortune I had thought to have undone was brought home 
to me. Yet I could not take one step to defend myself, and 
must perforce drift on, to what end T knew not. 

The light shone in all its brightness for some five min- 
utes; then it died away suddenly, and on the spot whence 
it had come I could just distinguish the dark hull of a 
steamer. To my vast consolation, she had two funnels and 
three masts, and I remembered that Black’s boat had but 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


139 


one funnel and two masts, so that good fortune seemed to 
have come to me at last. Over-delighted with the dis- 
covery, I stood up at my risk in the jolly-boat and waved 
my arms wildly; when, as if in answer, the searchlight 
flashed out again and bathed me in its refulgent beams. 
Some moments, long moments to me, passed in feverish 
conjecture; and then in the pathway of the light I saw in 
all distinctness the outline of a -long-boat, fully manned, and 
she was coming straight to me. There could be no more 
doubt of it; I had passed through much suffering, but it 
was all child’s play to the ^^might have been”; and in the 
reaction I laughed aloud like an hysterical woman, and 
blushed to remember those great tears which had rolled 
over my face not an hour gone. And all the time I never 
took my eyes from the boat, hut feasted on it as a beggar- 
child feasts in imagination on the gauds of a groaning table. 
Its progress seemed slow, woefully slow; the men in it made 
me no manner of signal, never gave an answer to my 
erratic hand- waving; but, what was of more consequence, 
they came in a bee-line toward me, and the radiating light 
never moved once whilst they rowed. In the end, I myself 
broke the silence, shouting lustily to them, but getting no 
answer until I had repeated the call thrice. The fourth 
cry, loud and in something desperate, brought the response 
so eagerly awaited; but when I recognized the voice of him 
who then hailed me I fell down again in my boat with a 
heart-stricken burst of sorrow, for the voice was the Irish- 
man’s, and Four-Eyes spoke: 

Avast hailin’, young ’un,” he cried; ‘Ve ain’t goin’ to 
part along o’ your society no more, don’t you be frettin’.” 

They dragged me into their boat, and, taking my own 
in tow, they rowed rapidly to the distant steamer, on whose 
deck I stood presently; but not without profound fear, for 
I knew that at last I was a prisoner on the nameless ship. 


140 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

A CABIN IN SCARLET. 

There was light from six lanterns, held by giant negroes, 
to greet me when I had mounted the ladder and was at last 
on the deck of the great ship; but none of the men spoke 
a word, nor could I see their faces. Of those who had 
brought me from the jolly-boat, I recognized two besides 
^^Four-Eyes” as men whom I had seen in Paris, but the 
Irishman appeared to be the captain of them; and, in lack 
of other leader, he spoke when all were aboard, but it was in 
a monosyllable. ‘‘^Aft!” he said, looking round to see if 
anyone else were near; and one of the men silently touched 
me upon the shoulder, and I followed him along a narrow 
strip of iron deck, past a great turret which reared itself 
above me, and again by the covered forms of quick-firing 
guns. We descended a short ladder to a lower deck; and 
so to the companion way, and to a narrow passage in which 
were many doors. One of these he opened, and motioned 
me to enter, when the door was closed noiselessly behind 
me, and I found myself alone. 

My first feeling was one of intense surprise. I had 
looked to enter a prison; but, if that were a prison, then 
were lack of liberty shorn of half its terrors. The cabin 
was not large, but one more artistic in effect was never built. 
Hung all round with poppy-colored silk, the same material 
made curtains for the bunk, which seemed of unusual size, 
and furnished with sleep-bespeaking mattresses. It was 
employed also for the cushions and covering of the arm- 
chair and the couch, and to drape the dressing-glass and 
basin which were in the left-hand corner. It seemed, in- 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


141 


deed, that the whole room was a harmony in scarlet, with a 
scarlet ceiling and scarlet hangings; hnt the luxury of it 
was unmistakable, and the feet sank above the ankles in 
the soft Indian rug, which was ornate with the quaint, 
mosaic-like workings and penetrating colors of all Eastern 
tapestry. For light, there was an arc-lamp, veiled with 
gauze of the faintest yellow; and upon the table in the 
center was a decanter of wine and a box of cigars. The 
room would have been perfect hut for a horrid blot upon 
it — a blot which stared at me from the outer wall with 
bloodshot eyes and hideous visage. It was the picture of 
a man’s head that had been severed from the body, and was 
repulsive enough to have been painted by Wiertz himself. 
The picture almost terrified me, but I thought, if no worse 
harm befall me, what odds? and I sat down, all wondering 
and dazed, and drew a cigar from the box upon the table. 
The wine, of which I drank nearly a tumblerful, put new 
courage of a sort into me; and so, troubled and amazed, I 
began to ask myself what the proceeding meant, or what 
the portent of it all could possibly be. 

My conclusion was, when I thought the whole position 
out, that the man Black could be showing me this marked 
consideration only for some motive of self-interest. It was 
evident that he had been aware of my intention to follow 
him from the moment when Eoderick purchased our new 
steam yacht. He had put one of his own men craftily upon 
the ship to watch us, and had made a bold attempt to deal 
with us in mid-x\tlantic. Foiled there, he had taken ad- 
vantage of my folly in entering such a place as the Bowery, 
and had given orders that I should be carried to his own 
ship — ^for I knew then that the strange craft he owned was 
capable of many disguises — and should be carried alive. 
Why alive, if not that he might learn all about me, or that 
a more dreadful fate than mere death should be mine. I 
had seen the appalling end of poor Hall, the merciless sever- 
ity with which his death had been compassed. Why should 
I expect more gentle usage or other recompense? If ever 


142 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


man had been trapped, I had been; and, beneath all my 
placid self-restraint, I felt that my life was not worth an 
hour’s — nay, perhaps ten minutes’ — purchase. It was as 
if I had been taken clean out of the world with no man to 
extend me a helping hand. Eoderick, truly, would move 
heaven and earth to reach me, but what could he hope for 
against such a crew? or how should I expect to be alive 
when he brought his attempts to a head? And I thought 
of him with deep feelings of friendship at that moment, 
and wondered what Mary would say. She will be serious, 
I argued, for the first time in her life, and they will know 
much anxiety. Yet that must be — ^in the floating tomb 
where I lay I could hope to send no word to the living 
world which I had left. 

I had smoked one cigar in the cabin, listening to the 
tremendous throb of the ship’s screws, and the swish of 
the sea as we cleaved it, when the electric light went out, 
and I was left in darkness. The kudden change gave me 
some alarm, and I cocked my revolver, being resolute to 
account for one man, at least, if any attempt were made 
upon me; but when I had sat quite still for some half an 
hour, there was no noise of movement save on the deck 
above, and my own cabin remained as still as the grave. 
It appeared that I was to be left unmolested for that night, 
at any rate; and, being something of a philosopher, I waited 
for another hour or so, and, finding that no one came near 
me, I undressed and lay down in one of the most seductive 
beds I have met with at sea. I did, indeed, take the pre- 
caution of putting my Colt under the pillow; but I was 
so weary and fatigued with my sufferings in the open boat 
that I fell asleep at once, and must have slept for many 
hours. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


143 


CHAPTER XV. 

THE PRISON OF STEEL. 

I awoke in the day, but at what hour of it I know not. 
The red curtains opposite to my bunk were drawn hack, 
admitting dull light from a port-hole through which I could 
look upon a tumbling sea, and a sky all girt with rain- 
clouds. But I had not been awake five seconds when I saw 
that my arm-chair was occupied by a man who did not 
look more than thirty years old, and was dressed with all 
the scrupulous neatness of a thorough-going yachtsman. He 
was wearing a peaked cloth cap with a gold eagle upon it, 
a short jacket of blue serge, with ample trousers to match, 
and a neat pair of brown shoes; while his linen would have 
touched the heart even of the most hardened blanchisseuse 
of the city. He had a bright, open face, marred only by a 
peculiarly irritating movement of the eye, which told of a 
nervous disposition; and there was something refined and 
polished in his voice, which I heard almost at once. 

“Good-morning to you,^’ he said; “I hope you have 
slept well?” 

“I have never slept better; it must be twelve o’clock, 
isn’t it?” 

“It’s exactly half past three, American time. I didn’t 
wake you before, because sleep is the best medicine in your 
case. I’m a doctor, you know.” 

“Oh, you’re the physician-in-ordinary to the crew, I 
suppose; you must see a good deal of practice.” 

He looked rather surprised at my meaning remark, and 
then said quite calmly, “Yes, I write a good many death 
certificates. Who knows? I may even do that service for 
you.” 


10 


144 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


It was said half mockingly, half threateningly; but it 
brought home to me at once the situation in which I was; 
and I must have become serious, which he saw, and en- 
deavored to turn me to a lighter mood. 

^‘You must be hungry,” he exclaimed; will ring for 
breakfast; and, if you would take a tub, your bathroom is 
here.” 

He opened the door in the passage, and led the way to 
a cabin furnished with marble and brass fittings, wherein 
was a full-sized bath and all the appurtenances for dressing. 
I took a bath, and found him waiting for me when I had 
finished. We returned to the scarlet room, and there, spread 
upon the table, was a meal worthy of Delmonico’s. There 
was coffee served with thick cream; there were choice 
dishes of meat, game pies, new rolls, fruit, and the whole 
was finished with ices and bon-bons in the true American 
fashion. My new friend, the doctor, said nothing as I ate; 
but when the repast was removed he pushed the cigars to 
me, and, taking one himself, he began to talk at once. 

regret,” he said, ^^that I cannot supply you with a 
morning newspaper; but the latest journal that I can lend 
you is a copy of the Hew York World of Saturday last. 
There is a passage in it which may interest you.” 

The paper was folded and marked in a certain spot. I 
read it with blank amazement, for it was a full account of 
the nameless ship’s attack upon the American cruiser and 
the Ocean King. The paper stated shortly that both ships 
had been impudently stopped in mid-Atlantic by a big 
war vessel flying the Chilian flag; that the cruiser had been 
seriously damaged, and had lost twenty of her men; while 
a shell had been fired into the fo’castle of the passenger 
ship and two of her men killed, with such other details as 
you know. The matter was the subject of a profound sen- 
sation, not only in America, but throughout the world. 
The Chilian Government had been approached at once, but 
had repudiated all knowledge of the mysterious ship. 
Meanwhile war vessels from England, America, and from 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


145 


France had set out to scour the seas and bring such intelli- 
gence as they could. The whole account concluded with 
the rumor that a gentleman in New York had knowledge 
of the affair and would at once he interviewed, with the 
result, it was hoped, of disclosing that which would be one 
of the sensations of the century. 

When I had put the paper down, the doctor, who fol- 
lowed me with his eyes, said laughingly: 

“You see that interview was unfortunately interrupted. 
You are the gentleman with the full particulars, for we 
know that your friend Stewart plays a very small part in 
the affair. Without your energy, I think I may say that 
he is little less than a fool.” 

“Hardly that, as you may yet discover,” I said, seeing 
instantly which way safety lay; “he knows as much as I 
know.” 

“Which is not very much, after all, is it? But that we 
must have fuller knowledge of. I am here to ask you to 
write accurately for us a complete account of every step you 
have taken in this matter since you were fool enough to 
follow Martin Hall, and poke your nose into business which 
did not concern you. As you know. Hall was punished in 
the Channel; you saw his end, as I hear from my comrade 
Paolo. We have spared you, and may yet spare you, if you 
do absolutely what we tell you.” 

“And otherwise?” 

He smiled cruelly, and his eyes danced when he an- 
swered: 

“Otherwise you would give all you possessed if I would 
shoot you now as you sit; but donT let us look at it that 
way. You must see that your case is utterly hopeless; you 
will never look again on any civilized city, or see the face 
of a man you have known. For all purposes you are as dead 
as though twenty feet of earth covered you. If you would 
still have hfe, not altogether under unfavorable conditions, 
you have but to ask for pen, ink, and paper — and to make 
yourself one of us.” 


146 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


^^That I will never do!” 

“Oh, you say that now; but we shall give you some days 
to think of it. Let me advise you to be a man of common 
sense, and not to run your head against a stone wall. Be- 
lieve me, we are a curious company; I don’t suppose there 
is a man aboard us who has not some deaths to his account. 
I am wanted for a murder in Shropshire; but I am giving 
your people a little trouble. Ha! ha!” 

This was said with such a fearful laugh that I shrank 
back from the man, who restrained himself with an effort 
as he rose to go; but as he stood at the door he said: 

“We are now bound on a four days’ voyage. During 
these four days you need fear nothing. We should have 
paid off our score in the Atlantic, and sent you and your 
fellows to join other intrusive friends of ours, if we had not 
wished to get this little account of yours. So don’t disturb 
yourself unnecessarily until Captain Black puts the ques- 
tion to you. Then, if you are foolish, you had better feed 
your courage. I have seen stronger men than you who have 
cried out for death when we had but put our fingers on 
them; and we shall do you full honor — ^in fact, we shall 
treat you royally.” 

When he was gone, I thought that he had spoken with 
truth. To all my friends I was as dead as though twenty 
feet of earth lay on my body. What hope had I, shut in 
that grave of steel? What friend could hear me, battened 
in that prison on the sea? Should I tell the men frankly 
all I knew, and crave their mercy, or should I seek hope in 
the pretense that Eoderick had information which might 
yet be fatal to them? I thought the position out, and this 
was the sum of it. These men had a home somewhere. If 
I had known where that home was, and had communicated 
the knowledge to Eoderick, then the Governments of Eu- 
rope could bring the ruffian crew to book with little diffi- 
culty. That, without a doubt, was the question Black 
would put to me. He would wish to know all I knew; but, 
if I refused to tell him, he would proceed to extremes, and 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


147 


I shuddered when I remembered what his extremes had 
been in the case of Hall. The man undoubtedly had con- 
ceived a scheme daring beyond any known in the nineteenth 
century. The knowledge of his hiding place was the key 
to his safety. If Roderick had it, then, indeed, I might 
have looked for life; but I knew that Hall had never 
discovered it, and what hope had Roderick where the 
greater skill had failed? 

This consideration led me to one conclusion. I would 
pretend that I had some knowledge, and that my friends 
had it too. If that did not save my life, God alone could 
help me, and the home of Captain Black would be my grave. 
Hor did I know in any case that I had much expectation of 
life in such surroundings or in such company. 


148 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

NORTHWARD HO! 

During some days I saw no more of the doctor, or of 
anyone about the ship save an old negro, who became my 
servant. He was not an unkindly looking man, being of a 
great age, and somewhat feeble in his actions; but he never 
opened his lips when I questioned him, and gave a plain 
‘^Yes” or ^^Xo” to any demand. Those days would have 
been monotonous, had it not been for the ever-present sense 
of coming danger, of a future dark and threatening, likely 
to be fruitful in trial and in peril. Each morning at an 
early hour the age-worn black entered my cabin and told 
me that my bath was ready. When I was dressed, a break- 
fast, generous in quality and in quantity, was set upon my 
cabin table. At one o’clock luncheon of like excellence 
was served; and again at five o’clock and at eight, tea and 
dinner. Some thought evidently was given to my condition, 
for on the second morning I found clean linen with a neat 
suit of blue serge awaiting me in the bathroom, and when I 
had breakfasted, the black brought a parcel of books to me; 
I found amongst them, to my satisfaction, several light 
works by Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and Max Adeler, as well 
as more solid literary food. The books saved me from 
much of that foreboding which I should have known want- 
ing them, and after the first fears had passed I spent the 
hours in reading or looking through the port-hole over the 
deserted waste of a fretful sea. I had hoped to learn 
something of our destination from this diligent watching 
of the waves; but for the first forty hours, at any rate, I 
saw nothing — not so much as a small ship — though it fell 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


i4y 

much colder; and again on the third day the lower tem- 
perature was yet more marked, so that I welcomed fresh 
and warmer clothing which the negro brought me for my 
bed, and observed with satisfaction that there were means 
within the ship for heating the cabin during daytime. 

It must have been on the fourth day after my capture 
that the nameless ship, which hitherto had not been speed- 
ing at an abnormal pace, began to go very fast, the rush of 
water from the head of her rising frequently above my port, 
and permitting but rare views of the distant horizon. Tlic 
greater speed was sustained during that day until the firs( 
dog-watch, when I was disturbed in my reading by thi 
consciousness that the ship had stopped, and that there was 
much agitation on deck. I looked from my window and 
observed the cause of the confusion, for there, ahead of us 
a mile or more, was one of the largest icebergs I have ever 
seen. The mighty mass, from whose sides the water was 
rushing as in little cataracts, towered above the sea to a 
height of four or five hundred feet, rising up in three snow- 
white pinnacles which caught the crimson light of the 
sinking sun and gave it back in prismatic hues, all dazzling 
and beautiful. As a great island of ice, all rich in waving 
color and superb majesty, the berg passed on, and the screw 
of the steamer was heard again. I watched intently, hoping 
to see other bergs, or, indeed, any ships that should tell 
me how far we had gone toward the north; but the night 
fell suddenly, and the negro served dinner, asking me if I 
had warmth enough. My curt answer seemed to astonish 
him; but the truth was that I was thinking of the man 
Paolo’s words when sick upon my own ship. He had cried 
‘Tee, ice,” more than once in his delirium; but none of 
us then had the meaning of his cry. Yet I had it, and with 
it a notion of the second secret of Captain Black. For 
surely he was running to hiding; and his hiding place lay 
to the north, far above the course even of Canadian-bound 
vessels, as I knew by the number of days we had been 
steaming. 


150 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


This new surmise on strange openings did not in any 
way combat the terror which visited me so often in that 
floating prison. Every day, indeed, seemed to take me 
farther from humanity, from friends, from the lands and 
the peoples of civilization. Every day confirmed me in the 
thought that I was hopelessly in this man’s grip, the victim 
of his mercy or his rigor; that none would know of my end 
when that end should come; no man say ^^God help you!” 
when at last the fellow should show his teeth. Such dire 
communings robbed me of my sleep at night; led me to 
books whose pages passed blurred before me; made me 
start at every rap upon the cabin door; brought me to fear 
death even in the very food I ate. Yet during the week I 
was a prisoner on the ship no harm of any sort befell me. 
I was treated with the hospitality of a great mansion, served 
with all I asked, unmolested save for the doctor’s threat. 

And so the time passed, the weather growing colder day 
by day, the bergs more frequent about my windows; until 
on the evening of the seventh day the ship stopped sud- 
denly, and I heard the anchor let go. This was late in the 
watch, at the time when I was in the habit of going to bed; 
but, hearing great movement and business on the deck, I 
sat still, waiting for what should come; and after the lapse 
of an hour or more I found that we were moving very 
slowly again, and with but occasional movements of the 
screw. I opened my port, and could hear loud shoutings 
from above, and although there was no light of the moon, I 
could see enough to conclude that we were passing by a 
great wall of rock, and so into some harbor or basin. 

The work of mooring the ship was not a long one when 
once we had come to a stand. When all was done the noise 
ceased, and no one coming to me I went to bed as usual. 
On the next morning I got up at daybreak, and looked 
eagerly from my spying place; but I could discern only a 
blank cliff of rock, the ship being now moored against the 
very side of it. The negro came to me at the usual hour, 
but he brought a note with my breakfast; and T read an 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


151 


invitation to dine with Captain Black at eight o’clock that 
evening. You may be sure that I welcomed even such 
a prospect of change, for the monotony of the cabin prison 
had become nigh unbearable; and when at a quarter to 
eight that evening the old man threw open the door and 
said, “The Master waits!” I went with him almost joy- 
fully, even though the next step might have been to my 
open grave. 

He led the way up the companion ladder, which was, in 
fact, a broad staircase, elaborately lit with the electric light ; 
and so brought me to the deck, where there was darkness 
save in one spot above the fore-turret. There a lantern threw 
a great volume of white light which spread out upon the 
sea, and showed me at once that we were in a cove of some 
breadth, surrounded by prodigiously high cliffs; and the 
light being focused straight across the bay, disclosed a cleft 
in these rocks leading apparently to a further cove beyond. 
I had scarce time to get other than a rough idea of the 
whole situation, for a boat was waiting at the gangway, and 
the negro motioned to me to pass down the ladder and take 
my seat in the stern. The men gave way at once, keeping 
in the course of the search-light, and rowing straight to the 
cleft in the cliffs, through which they passed; and so left 
the light and entered a narrower fjord, which was ravine- 
like in the steepness of its sides, and so dark, that one 
could see but a narrow vista of the sky through the over- 
hanging summits of the giant rocks. This second cove 
opened after a while into a lake; above whose shores, at a 
high spot in the side of the precipice on the left hand, I 
observed many twinkling lights, which seemed to come from 
windows far up the face of the cliff. These lights marked 
our destination, the men rowing straight to them; and I 
found, when we came near the precipitous shore which 
bound the fjord, that there was a rough landing-stage, cut 
in the rock, and that an iron stairway led thence to the 
chambers which evidently existed above. 


152 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


When we had come to shore, and had been received there 
by several men who held lanterns, and had the look of Las- 
cars, the negro conducting me pointed to the iron stairway 
and told me to mount; he followed me to the summit, where 
there was a platform and an iron door. The door opmed as 
we arrived before it, and there standing by it I found the 
young doctor, who greeted me very heartily and appeared 
to be altogether in a merry mood. 

^^Come in,’’ he said, ^They’re waiting for you; and this 
infernal cold gives men appetites. This way — ^but it isn’t 
very dark, is it?” 

We were in a broad passage lit by the electric light — a 
passage cut in a crystal-like rock, w'hose surface had almost 
the luster of a mirror. At intervals facing the cove there 
were incisions for windows, but these were now 
hung over with heavy curtains; and there were 
cupboards and pegs against the rock wall on the 
opposite side to make the place serve the pur- 
poses of a hall. The passage led up to a second door 
— this one built of fine American walnut; and we passed 
through it at once into a room where I was astounded to see 
indisputable evidence of civilization and of refinement. The 
whole chamber was hung round with superb skins, the white 
fur of the Polar bear predominating; but there were couches 
cushioned with deep brown seal; and the same glossy skin 
was laid upon the floor in so many layers that the footfall 
was noiseless and pleasantly luxuriant. The furniture 
otherwise was both modern and artistic. A heavy buhl-work 
writing-table opposite the door was littered with maps, 
books, and journals; there was a secretaire book-case, in 
Chippendale, by the side of the enormous fireplace, in which 
a great coal fire burned; and above this was an ivory over- 
mantel of exquisite work; a grand piano, open and bearing 
music, was the chief ornament of the left-hand corner; 
while another Chippendale cabinet, filled with a multitude 
of rare curiosities, completed an apartment which had many 
of the characteristics of a salon and not a few of a study. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


153 


But I had not eyes so much for the room as for the 
solitary occupant of it, who sat before the writing-table, hut 
rose after I had entered. One glance assured me that I was 
face to face with Captain Black— the Captain Black I had 
seen at the drunken orgie in Paris; but yet not the same, 
for all the bravado and rough speech which then fell from 
his lips was wanting; and his ‘^Come in!” given in answer 
to the young doctor’s knock, was spoken melodiously in a 
rich baritone voice that fell very pleasantly upon the ear. 
When he stepped forward and held out his hand to me, 
I had the mind almost to draw back from him, for I knew 
that the man had crime heavy upon him; but a second 
thought convinced me of the folly of making a scene at 
such a moment; so I took the great hard hand and looked 
him full in the face. He was not so tall as I was, but a man 
who appeared to possess colossal strength in his enormous 
arms and shoulders; and one not ill-looking, though his 
black beard fell upon his waistcoat, and his jacket of seal 
was loose and ill-fitting. The strange thing about our meet- 
ing was this, however. When he had taken my hand, he 
held it for a minute or more, looking me straight in the face 
with an interest I could not understand; and, indeed, he 
then forgot himself entirely, and continued to gaze upon 
me and to shake my hand until I thought he would never 
let it go. 

When at last he recovered himself it was with a quick 
start. 

am glad to see you,” said he; ‘^dinner waits us;” and 
with that we passed into another chamber, hung with skins 
as the first was, but containing a dining-table laid for 
four persons in a very elegant manner, with cut glass, and 
silver epergnes laden with luscious-looking fruit, and the 
best of linen. The light came from electric lamps in the 
ceiling, and from other lamps cunningly placed in a great 
block of ice, which formed the central ornament. hTor 
have I eaten a better dinner than the one then served. The 
only servant was a giant black, who waited with a dexterity 


154 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


very singular in such a place; and the guests of the Captain 
were the young doctor, the Scotsman known as Dick the 
Eanter, and myself. The Scotsman alone displayed signs 
of that rollicking spirit of dare-devil which had character- 
ized the meeting in Paris; hut the Captain soon silenced 
him. 

^^D’ye ken that we’ve no said grace?” remarked the lan- 
tern-jawed fellow, as we sat to table; and then, raising his 
hands in impudent mockery, he began to mutter some 
blasphemy, hut Black turned upon him as with the growl 
of a wild beast. 

^To the devil with that,” said he. ^^Hold your tongue, 
man!” 

The Scotsman looked up at the rebuke as though a thun- 
derbolt had hit him. 

^^erra weel, mon; verra weel,” he muttered; ^^Dut ye’re 
unco melancholy the nicht, unco melancholy.” And then 
he fell to the silence of consumption, eating prodigiously 
of all that was set before him; hut in high dudgeon, as a 
man rebuked unworthily. Of the others, the doctor alone 
talked, chatting fluently of many European cities, and prov- 
ing himself no mean raconteur. I listened, in the hope 
of getting some idea of what was intended in my case; 
also, if that could he, of the situation of this strange place 
in which I found myself; for as yet I knew not if it were 
to the north of America; or, indeed, in what part of the 
Arctic Sea it might he. To my satisfaction the Captain 
made no attempt to conceal the information from me. The 
first occasion of his speaking during dinner was in answer 
to a remark of mine that I found the room very pleasantly 
warm. 

^^’'es,” he said, ^^you must feel the change, although 
you will feel it more when we get winter here. You know 
where you are, of course?” 

I said unsuspectingly that I had not the faintest idea, 
when he cast a quick glance at the doctor, and the latter 
slapped me on the back quite joyously. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


155 


^^Bravo!” he cried. ‘^That prevents our putting one 
unpleasant question to you, anyway. I knew that your 
innuendo in the cabin was all make-believe.” 

course it was,” added the Captain; ^^but the knowl- 
edge of it saves our bustling you. However, this isn’t the 
time for talk of that sort. I may tell you, since you do not 
know, that you are on the west coast of Greenland, and that 
there is a Danish settlement not fifty miles from you — 
although we don’t leave cards on our neighbors.” 

He called for champagne then, and gave a toast — ^‘^The 
new recruit!” I did not raise my glass with the others, 
which he saw, and became stern. 

^^Well,” said he, won’t have you hurried, and you’re 
my guest until I put the straight question to you. When 
that happens you won’t think twice about the answer, for 
we can be very nasty, I assure you. How try a cigar. 
These are good. They came from the collection of Lord 
Eemingham, who was on his way to America a few weeks 
ago.” 

^^And met with an unfortunate accident,” said the doctor, 
with mock seriousness, which was taken up by the Scots- 
man, who remarked in his best drawl, ^^May his soul ken 
rest!” and they all shouted with infamous laughter; 
but I listened with a morbid interest when the doctor 
continued: 

^Tt’s astonishing how good the quality of the tobacco 
and the champagne is on board these ocean-going steamers; 
now this Bolinger ’84 was the special pride of the skipper 
of the Catalania, which unhappily sank in the Atlantic 
through the sheer impudence of the man who commanded 
her. As he liked it so much, I broke a bottle over his 
head before we sent him to the devil, with five hundred 
others.” 

^^Ye may say, in fact, that he made the acquaintance o’ 
the auld man wi’ the flavor o’ this gude stuff on him,” said 
the Scotsman, which made them laugh again; but Black 
was satiated with the banter, and he rose from the table 
suddenly as the man ^Tour-Eyes” entered. 


156 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


^‘This pleasant party must disperse,” he said to me; ^^you 
can go to the quarters we have provided for you, unless you 
would like to see more of us. We are well worth seeing, 
I think, and we may give you some idea of our other 
side.” 

should like to see everything you can show me,” I 
replied, being aflame with curiosity to know all that the 
strange situation could teach me; and then he made a 
motion for the others to follow, and we passed from the 
room. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


167 


CHAPTER XVII. 

ONE SHALL LIVE. 

The way from the dining-room was through a long pas- 
sage lighted with arc lamps at intervals, and having the 
doors of many rooms on the right-hand side of it. Several 
of these doors were open; and I saw the interiors of well- 
furnished bedrooms, of smaller sitting-rooms, and of a 
beautifully furnished billiard-room. At the end of the 
passage, we descended a flight of stairs to another landing, 
where there was a steep rock-slope, leading right through 
the cliff almost to the level of the water. This proved the 
way to a small stretch of beach which was at the uppermost 
end of the fjord; and here I found several substantial build- 
ings of stone, evidently for the use of Black’s company. The 
largest of the houses seemed to be a kind of hall, well lighted 
by arc lamps. Into this we passed, lifting a heavy curtain 
of skins; and seated there, on all sorts of rough lounges 
and benches, were the men I had seen in Paris, with fifty or 
sixty others, no less ferocious-looking or more decently 
clad. There were negroes in light check suits and red 
flannel shirts; Americans in velveteen coats and trousers; 
Italians muffled up in jerseys; Spaniards playing cards 
before the roaring fire; half-castes smoking cheroots and 
drinking from china pots; Englishmen lying wrapped in 
rugs, asleep, or bawling songs to a small audience, which 
gave a chorus back in mellifluous curses; Russians drunk 
with spirits; Frenchmen chattering; Chinese mooningly 
silent; over all an atmosphere of smoke and foul odors, of 
fetid warmth and stifling heaviness. 

As we entered the place the din was deafening, a medley 


158 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


of shouts and oaths, of songs and execrations; but it ceased 
when the Captain bawled ^"^Silence!” and an unusual stillness 
prevailed. The man Four-Eyes, who was always the imme- 
diate ‘%0-between” so far as the Captain and crew were 
concerned, at once put chairs for us near the. huge fire- 
place, setting a great armchair for the skipper, with a small 
table whereon were many papers, and a small wooden 
hammer such as the chairman of the meeting commonly 
uses. Black took his seat in the great chair, with the doctor, 
the Scotsman, and myself around him; and then he har- 
angued the men. 

^^Boys,” he said, ^Ve’re home again. I give you luck on 
it — and swill it down in liquor.” 

I noticed that he had put on with his entry into the 
room all his old fierceness of manner and coarseness. He 
shouted out his words whenever he spoke, and emphasized 
them with bangs of the hammer upon the table. The call 
for wine was answered by some of the niggers fetching in 
cases of champagne, and soon the stuff was running in 
every part of the hall. The Captain waited until the men 
were drinking, and then he continued: 

“I guess, boys, the next thing to do is to make our 
calculations. We’ve had a smart month’s work, and there’s 
a matter of two hundred and fifty pounds a man waiting for 
you when next you foot it in Hew York. That’s my calcu- 
lation; and if there’s one of you doubts it, he can see the 
figures.” 

He waited for them to speak, but they gave him only a 
great shout of approval, when he became more serious. 

^^You know, lads, there’ll be a spell of holiday here for 
you, which you may reckon that I regret as much as any of 
you. The skipper of the American cruiser has made hell in 
Europe, and there’s twenty cruisers out after us if there’s 
one. That I snap my fingers at; but fighting isn’t the 
game for you and me, who are looking for dollars; and we 
won’t hurt to lie low until the spring. Has any man got 
anything to say against that?” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


169 


There was not a word in answer to the threatening 
question; and then Black, bracing himself up to anger, 
went on: 

now come to speak of a bit of business which you 
all want to hear about. There was two of you refused a 
double watch when we left the Yankee cruiser. Let ’em 
step forward.” 

One man, a dark-visaged Russian, with a yellow beard, 
stepped to the table at the words, but he was alone. 

“Where is Dave Skinner?” asked the Captain in a calm, 
but horridly meaning voice. 

“I guess he’s sleeping on it,” said the man Roaring John, 
whom I noticed for the first time, curled up on a bench in 
the corner, the bandages still upon his face. 

“Kick him awake, the blear-eyed bullock,” said Black, 
and the kicking was done right heartily; the subject, a 
huge man with dark hair, closely cropped, and a stubbly 
beard^ rising to his feet and looking round him like one 
dazed with strong drink. 

^Wall,” said he, speaking to Roaring John, “you big- 
booted swine, what d’ye reckon ez you want along o’ me?” 

“Ask the skipper, cuss,” replied the other, pushing the 
sleepy man forward to the chair where the Russian stood; 
and then Black began to speak to them quite calmly: 

“Boys,” he said, “I got it agen you that you refused my 
orders, and refused them at a pinch when me and the rest 
of ’em ran for our lives. Each of you lays the blame for 
this on the other, and I’m not going to haggle about that. 
You know what we’re bound by, and that I can’t go beyond 
what’s written any more than you can go beyond it. There 
are two of you in this, and you settle your own differences 
— one of you lives. John, give ’em knives.” 

As I heard these words, amazed and doubting, the men, 
without any other incitement, and uttering no remark, 
stripped off their coats and stood naked to the waists. The 
crew about left off their games and drew near, forming a 
ring round the men, who had taken up great clasp-knives, 


11 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


and were evidently to fight for their very lives. I knew 
then the meaning of the words, ‘‘One of you lives!” and an 
excitement, strange and full of morbid interest, took posses- 
sion of me. 

That the men were to fight, and fight to th^ death, was 
sufficiently terrible; but a savor of horror was added to the 
dish by the flagrant unfairness of the conditions under 
which they fought. The American, Skinner, was thickly 
built, and of a sturdy physique. He had the better of his 
man in height, in reach, in physical strength; for Tovotsky, 
as I heard the Russian called, was a man of small stature, 
rather a shred of a man, full hairy about his breast, yet 
giving small signs of hardihood, or of power. It seemed 
to me that he might well have protested against the manner 
of the contest, and urged that a fight with knives would 
go to the stronger, skill being no part of it; hut he said 
nothing, wearing an air of sullen determination, while his 
antagonist bellowed at him, as though to overawe him by 
cheap bravado. 

“Stand up right here, so ez I ken stick you, boss,” he 
cried, Avhen they faced each other; adding as the Russian 
dodged him: “What, m}^ hearty, have ye got the taste of it 
already? — now steady, ye yellow-haired buzzard; steady, ye 
skunk, while I make hog’s meat of yon.” 

They stood crouched like beasts, or revolved about each 
other, the gleaming blades poised in the air, their left hands 
seeking holding-place. Skinner struck first, his knife shin- 
ing bright against the light as he slashed at Tovotsky’s 
throat, hut the Russian doubled down between his legs, and 
the pair fell heavily a yard away from each other. 

“Slit him as he lies, Dave!” “End him, Tov!” “Do 
you reckon you’re a-hed?” These and other equally elegant 
exclamations fell from the lips of the crew, as the men lay 
dazed, fearful of mischief if they rose. But the Russian 
was first up, and, springing at the other, who rolled aside as 
he came, he sent his knife home in his opponent’s hack, 
And a great shout of “First blood!” turned me sick with the 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


161 


terror of it. Nor could I look at them for some minutes, 
fearing to see a more repulsive spectacle; but when next I 
saw them, they were crouching again, and the American 
was silent, undoubtedly suffering from his wound, which 
bled freely. Presently he made another spring at Tovotsky, 
who ducked 'down, but got a slit across his shoulder, where- 
upon he set up a howl of pain, and ran round and round 
the ring; while the other followed him, making lunges 
terrible to see, but doing no more mischief. The effort took 
the breath out of both of them, and they paused at last, 
panting like dogs, and drinking spirits which their friends 
brought them. When they resumed again, it was by mutual 
agreement, rushing at each other, and gripping. Each man 
then had got hold of the right hand of his antagonist, so 
that the deadly knives were powerless, while the pair strug- 
gled, trying to ‘‘back-heel” each other. Pound and round 
they w^ent, bumping against their fellows in the circle, 
straining their muscles so that they cracked, uttering fierce 
cries in the agony of the struggle for life. But the Amer- 
ican had the strength of it, and he forced Tovotsky’s hand 
back upon him, stabbing him with his own knife again and 
again, so that the man’s breast was covered with wounds, 
and he seemed like soon to faint from weakness. It might 
have been that he would have died w^here he stood, but by 
some terrible effort he forced himself free; and with a howl 
of a wild beast, he thrust his own knife to the hilt in the 
American’s side. It broke at the handle; but the long 
blade was left embedded in the flesh, and the force of the 
blow was so overwhelming that Skinner drew himself 
straight up with death written in his protruding eyes and 
distorted features. Yet he had strength to seek vengeance, 
for his antagonist had now no weapon left him, which 
the American saw, and ran after him with a scream of rage; 
when Tovotsky fled, breaking the ring, and scudding round 
the great room like a maniac. There Skinner followed him, 
crying with pain at every movement, almost foaming at the 
mouth as his wii*y enemy eluded him. At last the Russian 


162 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


approached the door, his opponent being within a few feet 
of him, but the smaller man fell headlong through the cur- 
tain, and at that the death-agony came upon Shinner. He 
stopped as though held in a vise, hurled his knife at the 
Eussian, and fell down dead. The men gave a great shout, 
and rushed from the place to find the other; but they 
brought him in dead as he had fallen, and far from being 
moved at the ghastly sight, they halloaed and bellowed like 
bulls, coming to reason only at the skipper’s cry. 

‘^Take ’em up to the cavern, some of you there, and lay 
’em side by side to cool,” he said brutally, and his orders 
were instantly obeyed. Others of the crew brought buckets 
and swabs unbidden, and cleansed the place, after which 
Black addressed the men again as though the terrible scene 
was a thing of common happening. 

“Before I give you good-night,” he said, “I want to tell 
you that we’ve got a stranger with us; but he’s here to 
stay, and he’s my charge.” 

“Has he jined?” asked the blear-eyed Yankee, who 
had eyed me with much curiosity; but the Captain 
answered: 

“That’s my affair, and you keep your tongue still if you 
don’t want me to cut it out; he’ll join us by-and-by.” 

“That’s agen rules,” said the man Soaring John, loafing 
up with others, who seemed to resent the departure. 

“Agen what?” asked Black in a tone of thunder, turning 
on the fellow a ferocious gaze; “agen what, did you 
remark?” 

“Agen rules,” replied Eoaring John; “his man broke 
my jaw, and I’ll pay him, oh, you guess; it’s not for you to 
go agen what’s written no more than us.” 

Black’s anger was evident, but he held it under. 

“Maybe you’re right,” he said carelessly; “we’ve made 
it that no stranger stays here unless he joins, except them 
in the mines — ^but I’ve my oto ideas on that, and when 
the time comes I’ll abide by what’s done. That time isn’t 
yet, and if any man would like to dictate to me, let him 
step out — ^maybe it’s yon, John?” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


163 


The fellow slunk away under the threat, hut there were 
mutterings in the room when we left; and I doubt not that 
my presence was freely discussed. This did not much con- 
cern me, for Black was master beyond all question, and he 
protected me. 

We went back with him to the long passage where I had 
seen the doors of bed-chambers, and there he bade me good- 
night. The doctor showed me into a room in the passage, 
furnished both as a sitting-room and a bedroom, a chamber 
cut in the solid rock, but with windows toward the sea; and 
when he had seen to the provisions for my comfort, he, too, 
went his way. But first he said: 

^^You must have been born under a lucky star; you’re the 
first man to whom Black ever gave an hour’s grace.” 


164 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE DEN OF DEATH. 

The bed in which I lay was wondrous soft and downy; 
and the cold gave me deep sleep, so that I awoke at a late 
hour to find the sun streaming through my rock window, 
and the negro telling me, as he was wont to do in the ship, 
that my hath was ready. The hath-room lay away a few 
paces from my chamber; hut the water that flowed from the 
silver taps was icily cold; and I shivered after my plunge, 
though the beauty and luxury of the place compelled my 
admiration. It was no ordinary bath-room, even in its 
arrangement, the great well of water being large enough 
to swim in, and the basin of pure white marble; while soft 
and brightly colored rugs were laid on the couches around, 
and the arched roof was Eastern in design and decoration. 
When we returned to my sleeping place, I found the bed 
curtained off, leaving a commodious apartment, with books, 
armchairs, a writing-table, and a fireplace, in which a coal 
fire burned brightly. But the greater surprise was the 
view from my window, a view over a sunlit fjord, away to 
mountain peaks, snow-capped and shining; and between 
them to a \dsta of an endless snow-plain, white, dazzling, 
and not altogether unmonotonous, yet relieved by the nearer 
patches of green and almost garden land which seemed to 
stretch toward the sea. 

My new home was, as I had thought, upon the side of 
a fjord which led through a canon to the outer basin. There 
was a beach at the upper end of it, and grass-land where 
several canoes and kayaks lay; and I saw that many of the 
men who had watched the horrors of the night were working 
lustily now, dragging stores and barrels from a heavily 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


165 


charged screw steamer which was anchored near the beach. 
The rocks which bound the opposite side of the hay did not 
appear to be cut for dwellings as on our side; but I saw trace 
of several passages in them; and away above them there 
was a small mountain peak by which a river of ice ran into 
the sea. But of the outer cave I could observe nothing; or 
of the shore itself, though away at a greater distance, over 
some of the ravines, I made out the clear blue of the At- 
lantic, and a waste of peaceful water. 

The doctor came to me while I was at breakfast. He 
was very cheerful, and began to talk at once. 

^^The captain sends you his compliments,” he said, ^^and 
hopes you have slept. Entre nous, you know, he doesn’t 
care a brass button for such things, as we saw last night; but 
if we didn’t keep discipline here, we should have our throats 
cut in a week.” 

I gave him civil words in return, and he went on to speak 
of personal matters. 

^‘The men are inclined to resent the exception that has 
been made in your case. I am afraid it will lead to trouble 
by-and-by, unless, of course, you choose to close with the 
offer that Black makes to you.” 

^^You speak of an ^exception’ and an ‘offer,’ ” said I; “but 
for the life of me, I don’t quite know what you mean. 
How has an exception been made in my ease, and what is 
the offer?” 

“I will tell you in a minute; Captain Black has brought 
thirty or forty Englishmen of your position, or better, to 
this place within the last three years; not one of them has 
lived twenty hours from the time he set foot in the rock- 
house. As for the offer, it is evident to you that we could 
not permit any man to share our privileges, and to be one of 
us, unless he shared also our dangers and our risks. In 
other words, the time will come when you must sign an 
agreement such as I have signed, and these men have signed 
— and I don’t believe that you will refuse. It is either that, 
which means full liberty, plenty of money, a life which 


166 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


never monotonous, often amusing, and sometimes danger- 
ous; or an alternative which I really won’t dilate on.” 

^^You lay it all down very clearly,” I replied, ^'but you 
can have my answer now if you like.” 

He raised his hand laughingly. 

‘^Curse all emotion,” he said, ^ht affects digestion. Black 
won’t hurry you — why, for the life of me, I can’t tell, but 
he won’t. You can’t do better than take things easy, and 
see the place. I’ve brought you a ‘Panama,’ for the sun 
can advertise himself at eight bells still; and if you have 
nothing better to do, put it on, and light a cigar as we stroll 
round.” 

The idea of inspecting the place pleased me. I followed 
Doctor Osbart — for such his name was — down the rock 
slope we had trodden on the previous evening; and thence 
to the beach, hard and baked with the sun. The men, who 
had ceased the labor of discharging the steamer, were lying 
about on the grassy knolls, smoking and dozing, and they 
cast no friendly glances on me as we passed along the shore 
round the edge of the bay, and mounted a soft grass slope 
which led to the cliff -head on the other side. It was a long 
walk, but not unpleasant, in the crisp, sweet, odor-bearing 
air; and when we had attained the summit, a glorious sea- 
scape was spread before us. All about were the white peaks 
and the basaltic rocks, towering above ravines where ice 
flowed, or falling away to bright green pastures which rein- 
deer trod. The coast-line was lofty and awe-inspiring, 
often showing a precipitous face to the sea, which beat upon 
it with the booming of heavy breakers; and spread surf all 
foaming upon its ridges and promontories. I stood en- 
tranced with the vigor born of that life-giving breeze; and 
the young doctor stood with me watching. At last he 
touched me upon the shoulder, and pointed to the first cave, 
where the nameless ship lay snugly moored in the creek, 
with many seamen at work upon her. 

“Look,” he said, “look there, where is the instrument 
of our power, Is not she magnificent? Do you wonder at 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


167 


my warmth — ^}"et why? for without her we here are helpless 
children, victims of poverty, of law, of society. With her 
we defy the world. In all Europe there is no like to her; no 
ship which should live with her. Ask her for speed, and 
she will give you thirty knots; tell her that you have no 
coal, and she will carry you day after day and demand none. 
Aboard her, we are superior to fleets and nations; we 
ravage where we will; we laugh at the fastest cruisers and 
the biggest war-ships. Are you surprised that we love 
her?” 

He spoke with extraordinary enthusiasm — ^the enthu- 
siasm of a fanatic or a lover. The great ship reflected the 
sun’s glow from her many bright parts, and was indeed a 
beauteous object, lying there golden, yet swan-like, the guns 
uncovered as the men worked at them, and a newer luster 
added to her splendor. 

^'She is a wonderful ship,” said I, ^^and built of metal 
I never met with.” 

^^Her hull is constructed of phosphor-bronze,” he 
answered, ^^and she is driven by gas. The metal is the flne.st 
in the world for all ship-building purposes, but its price is 
ruinous. None but a man worth millions could build the 
like to her.” 

^^Then Captain Black is such a man?” I said. 

^^Exactly, or he wouldn’t be the master of her — and of 
Europe. Doesn’t it occur to you that you were a fool ever 
to set out on the enterprise of coping with him?” 

I did not answer the taunt, but looked seaward, away 
across the west, where Eoderick and Mary were. The 
boundless spread of water reminded me how small was the 
hope that I should ever see them again; ever hear a voice 
I had known in the old time, or clasp a hand in fellowship 
that had oft been clasped. They thought me dead, no 
doubt; and to take the grief from them was forbidden, then 
and until the end of it, I felt sure. 

But the doctor was still occupied with the great ship, 
looking down upon her as she lay, and he called my attention 
to a fact I had not been cognizant of. 


16S 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


‘‘We are coaling here, do you see?” he said. “It was one 
of Black’s inspirations to choose Greenland for his hole; 
it is one of the few comparatively uninhabitated countries 
in the world where coal is to be had, somewhat of a poorer 
quality than the anthracite we are accustomed to use, but 
very welcome when we are close pressed. He is filling his 
bunkers now, in case we should decide to break up this 
party before the end of the winter. That will depend on our 
friends over in Europe. We have given them a night- 
mare, but it won’t last, and they’ll go to bed again to get 
another.” 

“Who are your miners?” I asked suddenly, interrupting 
him, for I saw that the rock above the nameless ship was 
pierced with tunnels leading down to the shafts, and that 
forty or fifty coal-black fellows were shooting the stuff into 
the bunkers. 

“These are our guests,” he said lightly, “honest British 
seamen whose voyages have been interrupted. We give 
them the alternative of work in the mine, or their liberty 
on the snow yonder.” 

“But how can they live in such a place?” 

He laughed as though the whole thing were a joke. 

“They don’t live,” said he. “They die like vermin.” 

“I’m evidently afloat with a lot of fine-spirited fellows,” 
said I; “or, to put it in plain English, with a beautiful com- 
pany of blackguards.” 

“Why not say with a lot of devils — ^that would be more 
accurate? But you can’t forget that you came to us 
unasked, and now you must stop.” 

His leer at this sally was terribly expressive, and I 
showed all the contempt I felt for him, turning away to the 
sea fondly, as to the hope of my liberty, since thence only 
should it come. He read my thoughts, perhaps, taking 
me by the arm with unsought pretense of kindness, and he 
said: 

“Don’t let’s dissect each other’s morals; we have the 
place to see, and you must be getting hungry. I will 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


169 


show you only one thing before we go — it is our ceme- 
tery.” 

It was not a fascinating prospect, yet I followed him 
across the high plateau to the creek wherein the rock-house 
was, but to the side which was opposite to my bedroom 
window. There he descended the face of the cliff by 
rough steps, and entered one of the passages which I had 
observed from my chamber. The passage was long and 
low, lighted by ship’s lanterns at intervals, and I discovered 
that it led to a great cavern which opened to the face of 
one of the glaciers going down to the sea on the further 
side. Nor have I entered a sepulchre which ever gave me 
such an infinite horror of death, or such a realization of its 
terrors. 

The end of the cavern was nothing but a wall of ice, clear 
as glass, admitting a soft light which illuminated the whole 
place with dim rays, making it a place of mystery and of 
awe. Yet I had not noticed its more dreadful aspect at 
the first coming; and, when I did so, I gave a cry of horror 
and turned away my face, fearing to see again that most 
overwhelming spectacle. For blocks had been cut from the 
clear ice, and the dead seamen had been laid in the frozen 
mass just as they had died, without coffin or other covering 
than their clothes. There they lay, their faces upturned, 
many of them displaying all the placid peacefulness of 
death; but some grinned with horrible grimaces, and the 
eyes of some started from their heads, and there were teeth 
that seemed to be biting into the ice, and hands clenched as 
though the fierce activity of life pursued them beyond the 
veil. Yet the frightful mausoleum, the den of death, was 
pure in its atmosphere as a garden of snow, cool as grass 
after rain, silent as a tomb of the sea. Not a sound even of 
dripping water, not a motion of life without, not a sigh or 
dull echo disturbed its repose. Only the dead with hands 
uplifted, the dead in frozen rest, the dead with the smile of 
death, or the hate of death, or the terror of death written 
upon their faces, seemed to watch and to wait in the chamh^* 
of the sepulchre. 


170 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


I have said that the sight terrified me; yet the whole 
of my fear I could not write, though the pen of Death him- 
self were in my hands. So profoundly did the agony of it 
appeal to me that for many minutes together I dare not 
raise my eyes, could scarce restrain myself from flying, 
leaving the dreadful picture to those that should care to 
gaze upon it. Yet its spell was too terrible, the morbid 
magnetism of it too potent; and I looked again and again, 
and turned away, and looked yet once more; and went to 
the ice to gaze more closely at the dead faces, and was so 
carried away with the trance of it that I seemed to forget 
the dead men, and thought that they lived. When I 
recalled myself, I observed Doctor Osbart watching me 
intently. 

strange place, isn’t it?” he said. “Observe it closely, 
for some day you will be here with the others.” 

I shuddered at his thought, and muttered “God forbid!” 

“Why?” he asked, hearing it. “It’s not a very fearful 
thing to contemplate. I would sooner lie in ice than in 
earth — and that ice is not part of the glacfer; it never 
moves. It is bound by the rock there which cuts it off from 
the main mass.” 

“It’s a horrible sight!” I exclaimed, shivering. 

“I^ot at all,” he said. “These men have been our friends. 
I like to see them, and in a way one can talk to them. Who 
can be sure that they do not hear?” 

It was almost the thought of a religious man, and it 
amazed me. I was even about to seek explanation, but a 
sudden excitement came upon him, and he raved incoherent 
words, cr3dng: 

“Yes, they hear, every one of them. Dick, you black- 
guard, do you hear me? Old Jack, wake up, you old gun! 
Thunder, you’ve killed many a one in your day. Move your 
pins, Old Thunder! There’s work to do — work to do — 
work to do!” 

His voice rang out in the cavern, echoing from vault to 
vault. It was an awful contrast to hear his raving, and 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


171 


yet to see the rigid dead before him. My surmise that 
Doctor Oshart was a madman was undoubtedly too true; 
and, horrified at the desecration, I dragged him from the 
cavern into the light of the sun, and there I found my- 
self trembling like a leaf, and as weak as a child. The cold 
crisp breeze brought the doctor to his senses; but he was 
absent and wandering, and he left me at the door of my 
room. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


tn 


CHAPTEE XIX. 

THE MURDERS IN THE COVE. 

For some days I saw no more of Doctor Osbart or of 
Captain Black. My existence in the rock-house seemed to 
be forgotten by them, and where they were I knew not; 
but the negro waited on me every day, and I was provided 
with generous food and many books. I spenV the hours 
wandering over the cliifs, or the grass plains; but I dis- 
covered that the place was quite surrounded by ice-capped 
mountains and by snow-fields, and that any hope of escape 
by land was more than futile. Once or twice during these 
days I saw the man ^Tour-Eyes,” and from him gained a few 
answers to my questions. He told me that Captain Black 
kept up communication with Europe by two small screw 
steamers disguised as whalers; that one of them, the one I 
saw, was shortly to be dispatched to England for informa- 
tion; and that the other was then on the American coast 
gleaning all possible news of the pursuit; also charging 
herself with stores for the colony. 

^^Bedad, an’ we’re nading ’em,” he said in his best brogue, 
^‘for, wanting the victuals, it’s poor sort av order we’d be 
keepin’, by the Saints. Ye see, young ’un, it’s yerself as is 
at once the bottom an’ the top av it. ^Wot’s he here for?’ 
says half av ’em, while the other half, which is the majority, 
they says, ^When’s the old ’un a-sending him to Europe to 
cut our throats?’ they says; and there’s the divil among 
’em — more divil than I ever seed.” 

^^It must be dull work wintering here,” I said at hazard, 
and he took up the words mighty eagerly. 

^^Ay, an’ ye’ve put yer finger on it; sure, it’s just then 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


173 


that there’s work to do combing of ’em down, young ’uii. 
If I was the skipper, I wudn’t sit here with my feet in me 
pockets as it was, but I’d up an’ run for it. Why, look you, 
we’re short av victuals already; and we turn fifty av the 
hands in the mine ashore to-morrow!” 

‘Turn them ashore — how’s that?” 

“Why, giv’ ’em their liberty, I’m thinking: poor divils, 
they’ll die in the snow, every one av them.” 

I made some poor excuse for cutting short the conver- 
sation, and left him, excited beyond anything by the thought 
which his words gave me. If fifty men were to be turned 
free, then surely I could count on fifty allies; and fifty-one 
strong hands could at least make some show even against 
the ruffians of the rock-house. Give them arms, and a 
chance of surprise, and who knows? I said. But it was 
evident beyond doubt that the initiative must be with 
me, and that, if arms and a leader were to be found, I must 
find them. 

It might have been a mad hope, but yet it was a hope; 
and I argued: Is it better to clutch at the veriest shadow 
of a chance, or to sit down and end my life among scoun- 
drels and assassins? Unless the man “Four-Eyes” deliber- 
ately deceived me. Black would connive at the murder of 
fifty British seamen before another twenty-four hours bad 
sped. These men would have all the anger of desperation 
to drive them to the attack; and I felt sure that if I could 
get some arms into their hands, and help them to wise 
strategy, the attempt would at the least be justifiable. It 
remained only to ascertain the probability of getting 
weapons and of joining the crew without molestation; 
and to this task I set myself with an energy and 
expectation which caused me to forget for the time my 
rascally environment and the peril of my existence in the 
ice-haven. 

During the remaining hours of the day I engaged myself 
in searching the houses on the beach; but, although I looked 
into many of them, I found no sign of armory, or, indeed. 


174 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


of anything but plain accommodation for living. Here 
and there in some rude dormitories I encountered lazy loaf- 
ers, who cursed at the sight of me; and I did not approach 
the great common-room, for I knew the danger of that 
venture. But I made such a tour of the block of buildings 
as convinced me of the futility of any attempt to get arms 
from them; for such as were storehouses had iron doors and 
heavy locks upon them, and elsewhere there was scarce so 
much as a pistol. The discouragement of the vain search was 
profound, and in great gloom and abandoned hope I 
mounted the steep passage to my own apartment, and sat 
down to ask myself, if I should not at once surrender the 
undertaking, and preserve my own skin. That, no doubt, 
was the counsel of mere prudence; yet the knowledge that 
fifty men would stand by me to the assault on the citadel 
of crime and cruelty haunted me and drove me from the 
craven prompting. I remembered in a welcome inspiration 
that Black had a stand of Winchester rifles in his study; 
I had seen them when I dined with him; and, although 
there were not more than half a dozen of them, I had hopes 
that they would suffice, if I could get them, with knives 
and any revolvers I might lay hands upon, to hold a ring 
of men against the company,, or at least to warrant a covert 
attack on the buildings below. This thought I hugged to 
me all day, going often to the iron platform above the creek 
to know if there were any sign of the release of the men, or 
of preparation for getting rid of them; but I could see none, 
and I waited expectantly, for it were idle to move a hand 
until those who should be my allies had their so-called 
liberty. 

Toward evening, when I was weary with the watching, 
I returned to my room and found that the negro had spread 
the tea-table as usual; and I drank a refreshing draught, 
and began to question him if he knew anything of that 
which was going on below. He shook his head stupidly; 
but presently, when I had repeated the question, he said, 
laughing and showing his huge teeth: 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


175 


‘‘Begar, you wait — plenty fire jess now — plenty knock 
and squeal; oh yes, sar.” 

“Are they going to murder the men?” I asked aghast. 

“No murder; oh, no, sar, no murder, but plenty fight — 
ah, there he goes, sar!” 

There was the sound of a gunshot below in the creek; 
and I went to my window, and getting upon a chair, I saw 
the whole of a cruel scene. Some twenty of these seamen, 
black as they had come from the coal-shaft, were going 
ashore from a long-boat; while an electric launch was bring- 
ing twenty more from the outer creek where the nameless 
ship lay. But the men who had first landed were surrounded 
by the others of Black’s company, and were being driven 
toward the hills at the back, and so to the great desolate 
plain of snow where no human thing could long retain 
life. From my open window I could hear the words of 
anger, the loud oaths, the shouts, could see the blows which 
were received, and the blows which were given. Anon the 
fight became very general. The pirates hit lustily with the 
butt-ends of their pistols; the honest fellows used their 
fists, and many a man they laid his length upon the rpck. 
Yet there was no question of the sway of victory, for the 
prisoners were unarmed, and the others outnumbered them 
hopelessly. Inch by inch they gave way, were driven toward 
the ravines and the countless miles of snow-plain; and as 
the battle, if such you could call it, raged, the armed lost 
control of themselves and began to shoot with murderous 
purpose. Death at last was added to the horrors, and, as 
body after body rolled down the rocky slope and fell splash- 
ing into the water, those unwounded took panic at the sight, 
and fled with all speed away up the side of the glacier mount; 
and so, as I judged it must be, to their death in that frozen 
refuge beyond. 

When all was quiet I shut my window, and sat in my 
chair to think. The negro had left me, and the whole place 
was very still. Neither Black nor the Doctor had showed 
during the scene of the massacre (for T could call it nothing 
12 


176 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


else); and in the rock-housc itself there was not so much 
as a footfall. I began to hope that the master of the place 
might chance to be away; and when darkness had fallen I 
went into the long passage then deserted, and found the 
door of his sitting-room ajar, but the place was dim within; 
and I feared to make an attempt to get the arms until I 
knew that all slept. But one misfortune could lie between 
myself and the aid which I should hear to these men — it 
was the chance that Black locked the door of his study 
when he slept. If he did not,, I could get the rifles, and 
convey them across the hay to the other fellows; if he did, 
all hope were gone. 

At seven o’clock I dined as usual, no one coming to me; 
and at eight the negro had cleared away the repast, and had 
left me for the night. I closed my own door, and for three 
hours or more I paced my chamber, the fever of anticipation 
and of design burning me as with Are. It must have been 
eleven o’clock when at last I put out my light, and listened 
in the passage; yet heard nothing, not even the echo of a 
distant sound. 

Of the doors about, the majority were closed; hut the 
Doctor’s was open, and his room was in darkness, so that I 
began to fear that he was closeted with Black; and I went 
very stealthily, having left my hoots behind me, to the 
man’s study, and found that door ajar as it had been when 
I had come to it some hours before. This discovery set me 
almost drunk with hope. There was no doubt that both 
the men were away from their rooms, so that my time could 
not have been better chosen; and, more fearless in their 
absence, I pushed the door wide open and began to feel my 
way in the blinding dark. 

My first proceeding was to run upon some slight article 
of furniture, and to overturn it. The crash that followed 
echoed through the vaulted passages, and I stood quite still, 
thinking that all chance of success had gone with the mis- 
hap. But no sound followed, and after many minutes I 
went on again with great care, feeling my way as a cat, quite 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


177 


sure that at last I should succeed. Twice I went round the 
room, and could not put my hand upon the rifles; but at 
the third attempt I found them, and gave a sigh of relief. 
Then an overwhelming terror struck me chill and power- 
less. My sigh was echoed from the corner by the window; 
and a low chuckle of laughter followed it. I stood as a man 
petrified, my hand upon a gun, hut my nerves strained to a 
tension that was horrible to bear. Who was there with me? 
By whom was I watched? 

Alas! I knew in another moment, when the electric light 
flooded the chamber, and I saw Black sitting at his writing- 
table, observing me, a jeer upon his lips, and all the terrible 
malice of his nature written in his keen and mocking eyes. 
I stood transfixed by that searching gaze, held spellbound 
by the fascination of the obvious danger, my hand still upon 
one of the rifles, yet trembling with the agitation of dis- 
covery. Words rose to my lips — excuses, pleadings; but 
they died away in my throat, and I could not utter them. 
Plans for the undoing of that which had been done, ways 
of escape, efforts to gain time, suggested themselves to me, 
but remained suggestions. I could do nothing but stand 
and sway my body as a victim before a python — ^the prey 
before a snake that is about to strike. 

We must have watched each other thus for a minute or 
more. I saw during those moments when I was bereft of 
all power that the man had a revolver cocked at his left 
hand, but a pen in his right; while manuscript lay before 
him, so that he must have been in the room for some time, 
and had extinguished his light only at my coming. And 
he had heard me quit my own chamber, I did not doubt; 
yet this surprised me, for I had no shoes upon my feet, and 
had walked with the stealth of a cat. Indeed, he appeared 
to read the fleeting speculations of my thought, and at last 
to take pity on my position, for he leaned over the table, 
and drew near to it a lounge on which the skin of a polar 
bear was spread. 


178 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


''Sit here/’ he said, and at the bluif word my nerve came 
back to me. I sat before him, facing him with less fear. 
Yet it was humiliating to he treated almost as a child, and 
I knew from the inflection of his voice that he spoke to me 
then as one would speak to a school lad who had played 
truant. And in this tone he continued: 

"You’re a smart boy, and have ideas; but, like all little 
boys, your ideas don’t go far enough. I was just the same 
when I was your age, always trying to climb perpendicular 
places, and always falling down again. When you’re older, 
you look to see what your hold’s like before you begin. 
Meanwhile, you’re like a little dog barking at a bull, and 
you’re precious lucky not to be over the hedge by this time 
— maybe the bull doesn’t mind you, ma3^be he’s waiting a 
day — but take his advice and go to kennel awhile.” 

He said this half laughing, and in no sense flercely; but 
his words angered me beyond restraint, and I could have 
struck him as he sat. He saw my anger, and ceased his 
provocation. 

"Silly lad,” he said again, "silly beyond expression to 
put your head into a business which never concerned you, 
and to stake your life on a struggle which must have only 
one end. Don’t you think so?” 

At this I plucked up courage and answered him: 

"I came here to-night to stop your devilry in murdering 
fifty innocent men.” But he started up at the words and 
raved like a maniac. 

"And who made you judge, you puppy?” he cried. 
"Who set you to watch me, or give your opinions on what 
I do or what I don’t do? Who asked you whether you liked 
it or didn’t like it, you sneaking little brat? I wonder I 
let you live to spit your -dirty words in my face!” 

His anger was fierce, terrible as a tornado. His teeth 
gnashed, his hands shook, he rolled in his chair like a great 
wounded beast; but when he saw that I was unmoved, he 
fell quiet again, and wiping his forehead, where the sweat 
had gathered thickly, he said in a low, coaxing voice: 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


170 


“Don’t compel me, lad, to do what 1 have meant not to 
do. You’re here for good or ill, and if you wish to keep 
your life, put a control on your tongue. These men are 
nothing to you; they’re lazy hogs that the world’s well rid 
of — let ’em die, and save your own carcass. You’ve been 
here days now — the first man that ever lived among us 
without signing our papers. But you can’t stay that way 
any longer. You know this business. You’ve a straight 
notion that my hand’s agen Europe, and, for the matter of 
that, agen the world too; those that share with me shall 
swing with me, and if I l3urn when it’s done, by the devil 
himself they shall bum too. It isn’t of my asking that 
you’re amongst us, or that you took up the work of the 
hound Hall, who put the first nail in his coffin that night 
he came to my bed at Spezia. I saw him there, though he 
thought me sleeping; and that night I wrote death against 
his name, as I wrote it against yours when you entered my 
room in Paris. There’s reasons why I’ve broken my word 
in your case, though you’ll never know ’em; but there’s no 
reason why you shouldn’t swear to go through it with 
me and mine, man for man, life with life, be it rope’s end 
or bullet, to rot amongst the fish, or to share every mate 
among us what’s got upon the sea. That’s my question, 
and you’ll answer it now, yes or no, plain word and no 
shuffle; meaning to you whether you go on as you’ve gone 
on in the past, or freeze amongst the others lying up there 
in the cavern; whether you swim in money, as my lot swim 
in it, or get bullets in you thick as hail from northward. 
That’s my question, I say again, and there’s my papers. 
Sign ’em now, or you lie a corpse before an hour on the 
clock.” 

He leaned over his writing-table and put the paper into 
my hands, a rough sheet of parchment, which he wished me 
to read. But my eyes were dimmed with the restless ex- 
citement of the situation, with the dread terror of the 
alternative put to me; and I saw nothing but lines of 
writing which swam before me. The silence of the room 


180 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


was terrible to bear; it was as though I struggled for life 
while already in the tomb. My thoughts went hurriedly 
to Europe, to my home, to my friends; above all I recalled 
the night when Martin Hall went to his death, and his 
shadow seemed by me, his face beseeching me, his hand 
holding mine back from the pen that it would have clutched. 
During this time the man Black leaned toward me, and 
watched me, expectancy in his face, threatening in his pose. 
Yet he did not speak, and my eyes left the paper, and I 
gave him look for look, and from his face my glance passed 
to his right hand, which held the pistol; and in that instant 
I took heart for a step which was the last mad design of a 
driven man. 

"Give me the pen!” I said suddenly, rising and bending 
over the table. 

He put the pen into my hands, and leaned back with a 
chuckle of satisfaction; hut the movement cost him the 
game. I clutched his pistol with a lightning grasp, and 
covered him with it. 

"If you raise a finger I’ll shoot you like a dog!” I cried. 

Then the man, who was no craven, sat motionless in his 
chair; and I saw the beads of terror falling from his fore- 
head, but he betrayed no emotion, and his face might have 
been cut from marble. I had the muzzle of the pistol upon 
him, and I continued with greater confidence: 

"If you raise your voice to call out, or if anyone comes 
to this room, you die where you sit.” 

He heard me then more calmly, and replied deliberately: 

"Boy, you’re the first that’s bested Black.” 

H’ll take your word for that,” I said: "but take care — 
you are moving your hand.” He held it still at once, and 
continued: 

^T’m caught like a rat in the hole. What do ye want? 
Name it, and I’ll know how we stand!” 

H want my life — my life, now that I refuse to sign that 
paper.” 

"Yes,” he said, "that’s a fair request, though I can’t say 


I 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


181 


it’s in my power to make it that way.” 

in your power to stand with me — you can give the 
order that no man’s to lay a finger on me, and you will?” 

He thought a moment, looking straight down the barrel 
of the Colt. Then he said: 

^‘Yes, I can’t avoid that — I’ll give you that.” 

^^And my liberty on the first oecasion offering.” 

he replied very slowly and sternly; '^that’s more 
than the devil himself could offer you; they’d tear me to 
pieces.” 

There was no doubt that he had right in this; and I 
reflected that I could gain nothing whatever by holding out. 
There was just the hope that he would abide by his word 
in the matter of my personal safety, but more I could not 
look for. The man could only die, and, if he gave me 
freedom, his own men would requite him as he said. I 
thought of this, and put the pistol down; then I offered 
him my hand, and he jumped up from his seat, grasping it 
with a great clutch altogether painful to bear, while he 
dragged me to the light and looked at me with that curious 
expression I had noticed when first I met him in the room. 

^^You’re a sound plank of a boy,” he said; ^^shake my 
hand, young ’un; shake it hearty; go on, don’t you think 
I mind; shake it right so, you beauty of a boy!” 

What else he would have said or done, what new token 
of his repulsive favor he would have bestowed on me, I 
know not, but his wild antics were cut short by the sound 
of firing, rapid and oft repeated, which came to us from the 
shore of the cove below. At the first report he let go my 
hand and went to his window, from which he drew the 
curtain, so that I saw the whole bay lit with silver light 
from a full-risen moon, and the distant peaks as grim bea- 
cons above a land of rest; a land which once, perchance, 
flowered with exotic luxuriance, but which now wore the 
snow-silk mantle that had fallen upon countless centuries 
of its past*. Y^et the whole glory and entrancement of the 
perfect peace were for the moment ruined, for out on the 


182 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


snow there was a hungry crowd of starving souls, crying, I 
doubt not, for bread; and those to whom they cried an- 
swered them with their muskets, dyeing the glittering white 
with many a red stream, bringing many a hungered wretch 
to his last sleep in the frozen night of death. And out over 
the silence of the hills the cries for mercy rang as in bitter- 
ness to God, the dreadful cries of the weak, downtrodden 
beneath the feet of those who knew not God, the last scream 
of perishing souls, the sobs of strong men in their agony. 
In vain I closed my ears, shut out the sight from my eyes. 
The picture came to me again and again, the sound of the 
voices would not be hushed, and in turn I cried to Black: 

^Tor God’s sake, help those men, if you have anything 
but the instincts of a brute in you!” 

He shrugged his shoulders defiantly. ^‘What am I to 
do?” he asked. 

^‘^Stop the de'sdl’s work, and give the men bread, as I’ve 
just given you your life.” 

There was a pause before he answered me, and I could 
see that an old nature and a. new impulse fought vdthin him. 
He did not give me any direct answer to my earnest appeal, 
but he snatched a rifle from a case and said: 

^Take that pistol, and come on; you’ve fooled me once, 
and we’ll make it even numbers. But it ain’t as easy as 
cutting cheese, and there’s blood to let.” 

I followed him down the passage to the beach, where he 
blew a whistle sharp and shrill, and the note had a strange 
ring as it echoed through the canon. 

^^That’ll wake ’em on the ship,” he explained. ‘T’m not 
afeard of these, but there’s fighting to be done — ^now lie 
behind me, and don’t show till you’re wanted.” 

He advanced toward the snow plain and sang out: 
ohn, you there, Dick — hands to quarters, do you hear 
me? Move right quick, or I’ll move you, by thunder!” 

They put down their arms from their shoulders in blank 
amazement, and listened to him as he went on: 

^^There’s enough down for one night, I reckon, and I’m 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


183 


not going to be kept awake by your cursed firing — what’s 
to be done can be done in the morning; why, you boatload 
of night rats, ain’t any of you got sleep in you?” 

They came round him slowly and sulkily, and he drove 
them to the big houses with pleasant oaths and fine, round 
phrases. I lurked near him, but an American saw me and 
cried: 

^'Say, Cap’en, hev ye took to nursin’ that boy ez ye seems 
so fond of?” 

^^Shut your jaw, or I’ll shut it for you!” replied Black. 
^Ts the boy your affair?” 

^‘He’s the affair of all of us, I calkerlate, an’ some of us 
wishes to know particler if he’s signed or no.” 

Black was smothered in anger, but he showed it only 
with that terrible growling of the voice, and his horrid 
calmness. 

'^Oh, you want to know, do you? Which of you, might I 
ask, is particler anxious about my business?” 

There were thirty or forty of them round, and they 
pressed the closer at the question, as he continued: 

^T^et them as makes complaint step right here.” 

Only four joined the leader; but the Captain suddenly 
snatched my revolver from me, and fired four shots; and for 
each shot a man dropped dead on the beach; but the 
American stood untouched. The appalling brutality of 
the action seemed to awe the rest of the crew. They stood 
motionless, dumb with their rage; but when they recov- 
ered themselves they rushed upon us with wild ferocity; and 
the Yankee fired at Black point-blank. I thought, truly, 
that the end was then; but I heard a shout from the water, 
and, looking there, I saw Doctor Osbart in the launch; and 
there was a Maxim gun in the bows of her. 

‘^Clear that beach!” roared Black in awful passion; and 
instantly, as he dropped flat and I imitated him, there was 
a hail of bullets, and the main part of the crowd fell shriek- 
ing; but some threw themselves down, while many stiffened 
and rolled in deaths and blood spouted from scores of 
wounds. 


184 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


The victory was awful, instantaneous. As the men fled 
toward the hills. Black called after them: 

^^Bring to, you limp-gutted carrion, or Fll wipe you out, 
every one of you! Any man who’ll save his throat, let 
him come here!” 

At these words they turned hack to a man, and came 
cowering to the water’s edge. Thirty of their fellows lay 
dead or wounded on the stones, and many of those crawling 
to us had bullets in their limbs. Yet Black had no thought 
for them. 

^^here’s your leader?” he asked, and they pointed to 
the American, who lay with the blood pouring from a wound 
in his left thigh. 

^^He’s there, is he?” screamed the infuriated man. ^‘The 
darned skunk’s down, is he? Well, I’ll cure him like a 
ham. Get torches, some of you, and ice him in.” 

He was swaying with passion; yet, even regarding it, I 
could not understand what his order meant, and I asked: 

^^hat are you going to do with the man?” 

^^hat am I going to do with him?” he yelled, scarce 
noticing who spoke to him; ^Tm going to bury him.” 

It was wonderful in that moment to see how the men, 
who had before defied him, then became as slaves at his 
command. A silence deep and profound rested upon them; 
even those with the Captain watched him in his outrageous 
anger and were dumb; but all helped him in his ghastly 
work, and brought shovels and picks, which they carried to 
the higher plane of snow. As for the American, who sat 
upon the beach groaning with the pain of his wound, I do 
not know how any man could have wished to add to his 
hurt; yet he asked for no S5rnipathy, and it was plain that 
he knew what they meant to do with him. At one time 
feverish ravings seized him, and he shook his fist at all 
around him; then he poured his anger upon Black, who 
listened to him, gratified that he should provoke it. And 
the more the man cursed, the greater satisfaction did the 
other show. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


185 


^^We’ye got to die, both of us,” said the American at last, 
ceasing his wilder oaths; “you en me. Black, en there isn’t 
much ez we kin look for; but if there’s en Almighty God, 
I reckon ez He’ll place this yere off my score, and lay it on 
yours, or there ain’t no hell, an’ there ain’t no justice, an’ 
what seamen dreams of is lies — lies as your word is lies, en 
everything about your cursed ship. Go on, lay me right 
here as I lay now; but I’ll rize agen you, and the day’ll 
come when you’d give every dollar ye’re worth to dig me 
up, en give me life agen.” 

The softer speech availed the poor fellow as little as the 
other. I felt then an exceeding pity for him, and I touched 
Black on the arm and was about to plead with him; but at 
the sight of me he raised his fist, and I moved away, seeing 
by the light of his eyes that he was as much a madman in 
that moment as any maniac in Bedlam. For he stood 
foaming and muttering, his hands clenched, his hat upon 
the snow, great drops of sweat on his bronzed forehead. 
The haste of the men to get the picks was not half haste 
enough for him; and when they began to dig he hurried 
them the more, until a great pile of snow had been thrown 
out. 

It was a weird scene — the most weird I have ever known. 
We stood in a snow-pit amongst the hills, and above us 
rose in grandeur the great pyramids of basalt and gneiss. 
There was no' sign of living green thing, even of lichens or 
of moss, in that elevated plain above the sea; and the shrill 
call of the gulls was hushed in the greater stillness of the 
night. The moon, high in the unclouded sky, gave light 
far down into the crevasses — clear, silvered light that made 
a jewel of every higher point, and sprinkled the crests of 
the breakers as with floss of fire. FTor was there wind, even 
a breath of the night’s breeze, but only the melancholy si- 
lence of the omnivorous frost, the boom of falling ava- 
lanche echoing in the ravines and the ice caverns, the 
groans of the doomed man — a very Miserere amongst the 
hills, as down below amongst the dead upon the shore. 


186 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


In the snow plain, which was the center of this Northern 
desolation, they dug the grave of the living man. I watched 
troni afar — held by what hideous power I knew not — and 
I saw them roll him over into the trench they had dug, and 
shovel the snow quickly upon him. He watched them, 
silent in his terror; but when his head only was uncovered 
he gave a shriek of agony, which rose like the great cry of 
a man going before his God, and ceased not to echo from 
height to height until long minutes had passed. Then all 
was hushed, for the cold mantle of death fell upon him. 
Slowly those who had done their work took up their tools 
and returned doggedly to the beach; but Captain Black 
was unable to move from the man who had put that last 
great curse upon him not five minutes gone. Bareheaded 
and alone, he stood at the snow-grave, and looked down 
upon the mound, now sparkling with the crystals of the 
frost that bound it. And as he looked there came a great, 
weird wailing from a distant hill, a piercing cry, as of 
another soul passing, and it echoed again and again from 
peak to peak and ravine to ravine — a wild ^^ochone,” that 
had sadness and grief and misery in it; and I knew that it 
was the cry from one of the seamen who had been turned 
from the mines — from one who mourned, perchance, the 
death of a friend or of a brother. Yet, at the cry, Black 
gave a great start, and, shivering as a man struck down 
with a deadly chill, he passed from the grave to the beach. 
And this was the agony of his returning reason. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


187 


CHAPTER XX. 

I QUIT ICE-HAVEN. 

It was on the next afternoon, near to the setting of the 
sun, there having been unusual activity about the creek 
during the forenoon, that Doctor Osbart came to my room 
with great news for me. 

“This business with the men has completely upset our 
plans,” said he. “Black hoped to winter here; and to let 
the hubbub in Europe quite subside before he put to sea 
again. Xow he can’t do that, for there’ll be trouble just as 
long as the crew eats its head off in this wilderness. There’s 
only one thing that will keep the hands quiet, and that’s 
excitement. After all, it’s the same motive with most of 
us, from the gutter beggar who lives on the hope of the 
next penny to the democrat who supports existence on a 
probable revolution. If we once get them away to sea, with 
money to win, and towns to riot in, we shall hear no more 
of this folly, and Black knows it. He has determined to 
sail to-night; and he’ll take some of the men he put out 
of the mines to do the work of those who went down yes- 
terday. I’m very glad, for I should have cut my throat 
if I’d been here the winter through, and I daresay you won’t 
be displeased to get a change of quarters; but, before we 
talk of that, we must have the conditions.” 

“I won’t sign that paper, and Black has been told so,” 
cried I at once; “it’s no good coming here again with that.” 

“You’re premature,” he replied, with a smile, “prema- 
ture, as you always are. Isn’t it time enough to discuss 
the paper when I bring it to you?” 

“Then what have you to ask?” said I, prepared to hear 


188 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


of something which I must refuse, but longing with a great 
hope for the freedom of the sea. 

^^Simply this/’ he answered, ^^and, for the life of me, I 
don’t see what the guv’nor is driving at in your case; for 
he asks only that, if he take you from here, where you’d 
starve in a month if he left you, you shall give him your 
word, as a man of honor, that you will make no attempt to 
leave his ship without permission. Under no pretense or 
plea will you try to escape, and, whatever you see, you will 
not complain about when aboard with him. You are to 
hold no converse with the men, nor will you interfere with 
them in any work they do; and you will carry out this con- 
tract not only in the letter but in the spirit. If you will 
give me your word on that now, you can pack your trunk 
and come aboard without any fuss; but I don’t disguise it 
from you that any folly after this may cost j^ou your life, 
and that if you have half a thought of playing us false, 
you’d better stop where you are.” 

I debated the whole extent of his proposition, and made 
up my mind on it in a few moments. I was aware that, if 
I remained at the station, I could expect nothing but speedy 
death upon the ice, since the doctor had told me that the 
place would be deserted during the winter. Against this, I 
had to ask myself if my going aboard the nameless ship 
meant in any way approval of the occupation of those who 
sailed it; but this suggestion was too trivial, and I dis- 
missed it in a moment; while the thought flashed across 
my mind that if I could but once be taken to European or 
American waters, there would be at the least the prob- 
ability that this man might fall into the hands of those who 
were seeking him. In that case liberty would come with 
his undoing, which was even more pleasant to think upon 
than to contemplate it with him yet free as a voracious 
beast of the seas. 

^TTou accept?” said the doctor, who sat watching me as 
I thought these things; and I answered him without hesi- 
tation: 

^^I accept.” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


189 


^^The Captain has your word of honor as between gen- 
tlemen?” 

'^As between — well, if you like it so — as between gentle- 
men.” 

The satire of the last word was too much for him, for he 
was one of the pleasantest fellows in his saner moments that 
I have ever met. We both laughed heartily, and then he 
said: 

“But Fm forgetting, you’ve got no trunk, and I must 
lend you one. You’re rather short of duds, I know, but 
we can rig you out until we get to Paris, and there the 
skipper will see to it — anyway, so long as you’ve a coat 
thick enough, we won’t criticize you in these parts; and I 
don’t suppose you’re thinking of garden parties.” 

“Anything but,” I answered, as pleased as he was at the 
prospect of it all, and especially at the thought of quitting 
the ice-prison, if only for the winter. “I have neither 
clothes nor cash.” 

“Well, I don’t see what you’re going to do with the latter, 
just yet; but, man, you can just help yourself from the 
first Cunarder we stop — ^pshaw, don’t look like that; wait 
until you feel the excitement of it all. Why, what is it 
but one ship against the world, big men on their knees to 
you, money enough to wade in, and a fig for all the navies 
and all the fleets that ever left a port? I defy ’em to put a 
hand on the ship if they spend a million in the process. 
Come with us and see it all, and you’ll say it’s the most 
daring, the grandest, the most stupendous enterprise that 
man ever conceived.” 

It was no good to lift up one’s voice against enthusiasm 
of this sort, so I let him lead me to his room, and took from 
him a trunk with some linen. As he said, it was more 
convenient to have my own things, and we were much of 
a build, so that his clothes were no ill fit; and he was 
ridiculously generous, pressing all that he had upon me, 
and lending me a great gold watch and gold studs that were 
illicitly gotten, I felt sure. 


190 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


In the end I had quite a store of clothing; and I waited 
while he finished his own work that we might go down 
together to the launch awaiting us. There we found 
Black, watching men who were putting large hales of goods 
into the screw steamer, and everywhere there was sign of 
the break-up of the settlement. The Captain merely 
nodded when I gave him a word, and I thought that he was 
sore depressed, with scarce energy enough to he irritable. 
He seemed to doubt the wisdom of the departure even then; 
and he often hesitated in his walk, looking up to the win- 
dows of his home behind him. At the last, when the negro 
servants had come down the iron stairway, he locked the 
great door after them; and then he stood and cast his gaze 
over to the hills and the desolate land, which I believed he 
had a great kindness for. When he did join us, he gave 
the word, ^‘Let her go!” with a dogged sort of indifference; 
and at his command the launch plowed ahead, and passed 
through the canon to the outer basin. 

The sun was almost in the horizon then, and the northern 
lights were playing in the heavens, so that all the water 
was then alight with the glory of a hundred colors. How 
orange,, or a lighter golden, or blue as of the Corsican Sea, 
or flaming scarlet, or emerald green, or all shades of yellow, 
with the pink and pearl and fainter green as of a colossal 
opal, the light fell and spread from bight to bight, and 
crag to crag; and above there were sheets of eruptive flame 
and great rumblings, and mighty arcs of fire spanning the 
whole heavens, and gripping them as with the glittering, 
jeweled hand of some monstrous keeper of the skies whose 
mutterings came to us below. Or the scene changed again, 
and it was as though elves of the zenith had brought their 
golden caskets above the firmament, and there had burst 
them open, so that all the jewels of the light rained upon 
sea and land, and burned each other with their own beauty 
as they fell; and the earth answered them back with her 
shining face. One of the supreme moments of life, truly, 
to bathe in this shower of multi-colored splendor, to follow 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


191 


it in its golden path, where rocks took shape, and snow- 
forms lived, and the seas danced to its accompanying music, 
and one stood nearer to the great mysteries while yet farther 
from the homes of man. 

Black watched the Aurora as we watched it, but chiefly 
as it played upon his ship, lying moored in the very center 
of the outer basin. They had made a great change in her 
since I had seen her hut two days before; for she was now 
given bulwarks of white canvas, and her funnel was painted 
white, while covers hid away the bright points of her deck- 
houses and her turrets. She had become a white ship; and 
her transformation had been made with vast skill, so that I 
felt I should not have knovm her had I met her on the 
Atlantic. From her position away from the shaft of the 
mine, it was evident that she was ready to weigh, and I 
was reminded grimly of her mission by seeing a streamer of 
black at her mast-head instead of the Blue Peter. This 
time, too, there was a faint haze above her funnel, as though 
coal was being burned in her furnaces; yet I had no wonder 
that I did not see steam coming from her, for I knew that 
she was driven by gas, and was in many ways a ship of 
mystery. 

We boarded her at a ladder amidships, for the most part 
of her accommodation was contained in a towering deck 
erection round her funnel. Here there were two stages of 
cabins with a wide gallery running between them, and pro- 
truding so that it was directly above the water. There 
was, indeed, a companionway aft of this which led to the 
cabin I had occupied when a prisoner in the ship, and I 
found at a later time that the library of the vessel, with 
the store-rooms and a number of private cabins, was built 
in the ’tween decks abaft the funnel. Yet the great saloon 
I was to use during so many months, the quarters which 
Black occupied, the doctor’s room, the rooms for the en- 
gineers and for certain of the others who were privileged, 
were all ranged amidships; and I learned that while there 
was a big fo’castle, it was given over entirely to the niggers, 
13 


192 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


with whom the white men would not serve. These superior 
fellows, as they thought themselves, had accommodation in 
the poop, where there was a big cabin with berths all round 
it; yet with all this, the small part of the whole vessel 
devoted to quarters was noteworthy, and was designed, I 
did not doubt, for some purpose which I should learn pres- 
ently. 

These things I did not ascertain, you may be sure, on first 
boarding the ship. Although they left me to myself upon 
the high gallery whence I could see all the life on the decks 
below, they were so busy with the preparation for weighing 
anchor that no man spoke a word to me. The hands them- 
selves, the moment they were afloat, settled down to work 
with surprising steadiness. Black upon the bridge now 
wore a smart uniform with gold buttons and much show 
of lace; and the self-command of the man, the perfect 
knowledge of all things nautical which he displayed, and 
his all-absorbing love of his child, the ship, accounted for 
much that I had not understood in him before. I found 
to my amazement that Doctor Osbart acted not only as 
surgeon to the crew, but also as second officer; ^Tour- 
Eyes’^ being first officer, and the bully, ^Tearing John,” 
third. The coarse-mouthed Scotsman, who assumed the 
title of ^^meenister,” was, they told me, as good a seaman 
as any of them, and a wonderful gunner, so that he was in 
charge of the armament, with a big staff of men at his back. 
Of the engineers I saw nothing on first coming aboard; but 
later I heard the sound of pumping below, and there came 
up to the bridge where Black and the others were a little, 
thin, wizened, and spectacled man, quite bald, very ragged 
and black, yet with a head on him that could have stamped 
him ^Tirst-Class” in any assembly of the learned. I thought 
at the first glance that he was a German, and my surmise 
was confirmed by the doctor, who remembered me at last, 
and said: 

^To you see that little fellow? Well, he’s the genius of 
this ship. He’s deaf and dumb; and no man has ever 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


193 


heard a word from his lips; but he designed our engines, 
and he runs them with his three sons. It’s almost pitiable 
to see the man’s disregard for anything but that infernal 
machinery. He never leaves it; it’s meat and drink to him. 
If we make money, he doesn’t want it; if we’re going for a 
spell ashore, he won’t come, but stays here poking about 
the wheels. He was the first man in all Europe to see that 
gas would finally supplant steam for maritime vessels; and 
Black gave him carte blanche to carry out his ideas on this 
ship. You may be surprised to hear it, but fore and aft in 
those great cigar-shaped ends of ours we have nothing but 
gas — three million feet, at a pressure of between two and 
three atmospheres. Why, man, it’s the idea of the century; 
for every four pounds of coal burned by an Atlantic liner, 
we don’t burn a pound. We can steam for ten days with- 
out lighting a fire; and all the coal we need to go round the 
world will go in our bunkers. Save for that, and Karl 
Eemey’s genius, there wouldn’t be a man jack of us with a 
neck to call his own to-day. How, we snap our fingers at 
the best of them; there isn’t a cruiser that can live with 
the thirty knots we can show; and there isn’t a line-of- 
battle ship swimming that could get the better of us while 
our engines are moving. It’s a big claim, you think, but 
wait until you see us in gction, then you’ll know how much 
we owe to the little man in rags, but who has one of the 
clearest brains that ever was put into human being.” 

I was silent under this revelation, for it came to me that, 
with all the terrors of the great ship, there was also a 
scientific side, which marked the presence of a mighty 
intellect. The doctor saw the impression he had made 
upon me, and he said: 

^^To-morrow we will show you more; you shall meet the 
ragged man ” 

^^Which is mysel’,” said the Scotsman, who had joined 
us silently, ^^mysel’ that has’na a dud to my back. D’ye 
ken that when there’s ony distribution o’ the gudes I get 
a’ the female apparel; which is no justice ava for a meen- 
ister, let alone a seafaring man.” 


194 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


^^Never mind^, Dick,” said the doctor, laughing, as I 
did; beg a skirt for you the first time we say how- 

d’ye-do to a passenger vessel ” 

^^Hands, heave anchor!” roared Black at the moment; 
and our conversation stopped suddenly at the cry. Then 
slowly, as the hell rang out, the great engines began their 
work, and we swept out to the open sea. Night had fallen, 
but the Aurora still gave her changing light; and as we 
felt the first oscillations of the rolling breakers. Black took 
a long look behind him to his Arctic home. There before 
us was the black, towering, indented coast of Greenland, 
the bluff headlands of gneiss, the beacons of snow all crim- 
son in the playing colors of the mighty arc; and away be- 
yond them the vista of the eternal stillness, and the plain 
of death. A long look it was that the man of iron cast 
then upon his wild habitation; a look almost prophetic in 
its sadness, as if he knew that he should look upon it no 
more. A great farewell of an iron heart, and the breakers 
sang the ^^Vale!” as the ship sped onward to her deadly 
work. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


195 


CHAPTER XXI. 

TO THE LAND OF MAN. 

We dined that night in the saloon upon the deck, a com- 
modious place lighted by electricity, and in every way 
luxuriously fitted. The walls of it were paneled in white 
and gold, and were covered with curious designs, old heroes 
fighting, old gods drawn by lions at their chariots; Bac- 
chantes reveling, Jason seeking the fleece in a golden bark; 
Orestes fleeing the Furies. The long seats were covered 
in leather of a deep crimson, and there was a small piano, 
with many other appointments that were significant. The 
dinner itself was admirably served, and was partaken of by 
the deaf and dumb engineer, by the doctor, the Scotsman, 
and myself. We were waited on by a couple of negroes; 
and when the meats were removed we went above to an 
exquisitely furnished little smoking-room, and there drank 
rich brown coffee and enjoyed some very fine cigars. I 
was all ears then to learn, if I could, what was the destina- 
tion of the ship; and I found that Black talked without 
reserve before me, knowing well that I could do him no 
injury. He relied mostly on the doctor for advice, and 
discussed everything with him in the best of tempers. 

^^My plan is this,” he said: We’re short of oil, and Karl 
here is beginning to get uneasy. I shall knock over a 
couple of whalers in these seas, and fill the tanks. Then, 
as they’re looking for us in mid- Atlantic, we’ll get south 
of Madeira, and run against two or three of the big ones 
making for Rio or Buenos Ayres. We shall pick up a good 
bit of money; and it’ll be a month before they get on our 
course that way, for I mean to let ’em down light when it’s 
not a case of saving our own skin.” 


196 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


The Scotsman gave a deep sigh at this, and said in a 
melancholy voice: 

^^Hoot, mon, the deid frichtened you.’’ 

^^You’re a liar,” continued Black quite quietly, and then 
continued: ^^As Europe knows my game, it doesn’t matter 
how often she hears of me. Let her hear, and come agen 
me, and I’ll show my teeth. What we’re out for this 
journey is money, specie, pieces in piles, and we’ll get that 
on the lay of Eio-hound ships better than in any waters. 
It’ll he quick work, one against the rest of ’em; hut I built 
this ship to fight, and fight she shall — you agree on that. 
Doctor?” 

^^Of course. The more fighting the men see, the less 
trouble we shall have with them.” 

^That’s what I say — give ’em work to do, and they’ll 
sleep like dogs when it’s done; give ’em money and drink, 
and you’ve got hogs to drive. Now, let me get through 
the winter, and I’ll run south a spell in hiding, and then 
make northward with ten thousand pounds a man when the 
fall comes. But first we’ll have a week in Paris, I reckon, 
and stretch our legs amongst them as is most anxious to 
shake with us — what do you say, Dick?” 

^^Man,” said the Scotsman deliberately, ^fif there’s nae 
killing, I misdoubt me o’t a’ thegither.” 

^^You’re a fool,” replied the skipper testily, ^^and if you 
don’t go to bed. I’ll kick you there.” 

The fellow rose at this, and coolly emptied half a tumbler 
of whisky; but before he could leave, ^Tour-Eyes” came 
off the bridge and said laconically: 

^^Whaler on the port bow.” 

^^Signal ’em to come to, and drop a shot,” cried Black, 
rising; and then he called to the Scotsman and gave his 
orders: 

^^Stand by the gun!” and with that we all went out to 
the gallery, and saw by the clear power of the moon a full- 
rigged ship not a mile from the shore. She was homeward 
bound, and seemed by her build to be a Dane. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


197 


Upon onr own deck there was already activity, some of 
the men getting away the launch, and others putting empty 
barrels into it before they swung it out over, the sea. There 
was a method and quietness about it all which showed long 
habit at the same practice; and when at last the great gun 
before the funnel boomed out, the fine accuracy of the shoot- 
ing scarcely caused comment. The shot appeared to drop 
into the water almost under the whaler’s bob-stay, and sent 
up a cloud of foam and spray, ghstening in the moonlight; 
but the ship answered to it as to a deadly summons; and 
the tide and wind setting off shore, she went into the breeze 
easily, and lay to at the first demand. Then Black gave his 
orders: 

^^You, John, go aboard and buy their oil up — I’m getting 
you notes from my chest.” 

At the word ‘‘buy” the man John seemed astounded. 

“Oh, I reckon,” he said, “we’ll pay ’em hard cash with a 
clout on the skull, Cap’n; come right along, boys, and bring 
your shootin’ irons. Oh, I guess we’ll pay ’em, money 
down, and men a-top of it.” 

“You’ll do nothing of the sort, you lubber!” roared 
Black; “but what you take you’ll pay for, d’ye hear me? 
Then shut your mouth up and go aboard.” 

John was not the only man who was struck dumb by 
the skipper’s whim. There were mutterings on the deck 
below, and Dick, who had come from, the conning tower, 
was bold enough to make remark. 

“It’s a’most sinfu’,” he said, “to be sae free wi’ the siller. 
Why, man, ye could verra weel buy me a hundred pairs o’ 
breeks wi’ the same, and no be wanting it.” 

But Black was watching the launch, now speeding in the 
moonlight toward the rolling whaler. I watched it too, 
remembering how, not many weeks before, I had stood on 
the deck of my own yacht and awaited the coming of the 
same craft with my heart in my mouth. Now the danger 
was not mine, but I felt for the men who had to face it, 
since Black’s talk about purchase could scarcely soften the 


198 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


native ferocity of those who served him; and I feared that 
the scene would end in bloodshed. 

Happily the surmise was quite incorrect. That which 
promised a tragedy gave us hut a comedy. We saw from 
the platform that our men were taken aboard the ship, and 
we watched to see them hoist their barrels after them. But 
they did not, making no sign of having the oil, although 
there came shouts and sounds of altercation from the an- 
chored vessel; and we saw the flash of pistols, and dark 
objects presently in the sea. To the surprise of us all, the 
launch returned after that; and when our men came aboard 
they presented a shocking spectacle. ^^Roaring John” was 
covered from head to foot with a thick, black oleaginous 
matter; two of the others had their faces smeared in tar; 
the rest were like drowned rats, and were chattering until 
their teeth clashed with the cold. Nor could they for some 
time, what with their spluttering and their anger, tell us 
what misfortune had overtaken them. 

^^The darned empty skunks,” gasped John at last; ^^they 
haven’t got a barrel aboard, not a barrel, I guess; and when 
I gave ’em play with my tongue, they put me in the waste- 
tub — oh, I reckon, up to my eyes in it 

^^Do you mean to say,” asked Black, ^^that they’ve took 
no whales?” 

‘^Except ourselves, yer honor,” said a little Englishman, 
who was cowering like a drowned rat, “which they throw’d 
overboard, like the whales in the Scriptures, never a fish.” 

“Then we’ve wasted our time!” cried the skipper, stamp- 
ing his great foot; “and you’re lazy varmin to stop so long 
aboard parleying with ’em. I’m going on; you can settle 
your scores among you.” 

He gave the order, “Full steam ahead!” at which the 
third officer showed the temper of a whipped beast. 

“You’re going ahead leaving them swimming? Then 
darn me if I serve,” said he. “What? They pitch me in 
their dirty tub, and you laugh! By thunder! I’ll teach 
you!” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


19 !) 


Captain Black watched his anger with a pitying leer; hut 
“Dick the Ranter” and “Four-Eyes” were overcome with 
laughter, and roared until the ship echoed. 

“Houly Moses, it’s a fine picture ye are, my beauty,” said 
the mate; “and if Oi’ll be scraping ye down with a shovel, 
it’s yer own fayther wouldn’t know ye, so clane ye’ll be.” 

“To the which I would add, man,” said Dick, “that if 
ye’d let yersel’ drip into the lubricators you’d be worth 
siller to us; not to say ony thing o’ the discoorse I micht 
verra weel preach on Satan from yer present appearance.” 

The banter turned the man from his more meaning pur- 
pose. He stood gibbering for a moment, while the crowd 
pressed on him with gibes and jeers; but he had his revenge, 
after all, for there was a tar bucket at the foot of the upper 
deck ladder, and with this he armed himself. The brush 
was well charged and dripping, the tar yet liquid, the 
Scotsman’s face was all-inviting. With a fierce shout the 
enraged man went to the attack, and painted his lantern- 
jawed opponent merrily. In less time that I can tell of it, 
the Ranter dripped from head to foot; the black stuff 
])oured from his hemp-like hair, from his ears, it oozed 
down his neck, it even ran through to his boots; and when 
his enemy could no longer wield the brush from fatigue, he 
emptied the bucket on the man’s head as a last triumphant 
vindication of his strength. 

“Xow we’re a pair!” he said, pausing for breath, and sur- 
veying his work as an artist surveys a finished picture; 
“and I guess 3^011 ain’t going to take the biscuit in this 
beauty show.” 

“Man, I could hae weel dispensed wi’t,” sputtered the 
Scotsman; “but I thank 3’'e for dyeing my breeks. They’ve 
been wanting color since New Year.” 

The laughter had not yet died away when the men went to 
their cabins, and we posted the watches before turning in. 
We were at that time in latitude 65 degrees north at a 
rough calculation, and we passed the Danish settlement of 
Godthaab early on the next morning, though so far out at 


200 


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sea that I could make nothing of it; while we lost the coast 
of Greenland altogether before the day had passed, a hazy 
shower of dust-like snow greeting our coming to the At- 
lantic and to a perceptibly warmer latitude. During this 
day, and until we sighted the Shetlands, the small screw 
tender kept our course, and we exchanged signals with her 
every morning, her purpose being explained to me by ^Tour- 
Eyes,” on the fourth morning out, in his childlike phrase- 
ology. 

^Taith, she’s Liverpool hound, and we’ll pick her up 
again south of the Scilly when she’s tidings of ships out. 
Bedad, sir, there’s fine times coming; what wi’ the say full 
av big ones, and we one agen’ ’em, I’m like to believe as 
we’ll step ashore with our throats cut, ivery man av us, and 
on the shore av me own counthry, which sorra a day I left 
for this job.” 

^^Why did you leave it, Tour-Eyes’?” I asked cheerfully; 
and he said: 

’Twas this way, sorr, hut it’s a long yarn, and ye don’t 
nade more than the p’ints av it. When I was priest’s bhoy 
in Tipperary, me and Mike Sullivan had atween us what you 
gents call a vendeny, and coming out av church — ’twas 
Sunday mornin’ five years ago — I met Mike, an’ he put coals 
av fire on me head. Tegorra,’ says I, ht’s lucky for ye 
I’m in the grace, hut plase God I’ll not he to-morrow;’ but 
the spalpeen went to Cork next day, and it wasn’t till a 
year that I run agen him, prepared to do my dooty.” 

^^And you did it, I’ll he hound!” 

^^Sorra a hit; I just fell in with the divil, being an aisy 
sort av sowl, and he made me as drunk as a gentleman — 
that’s why I’m here, sorr. He shipped me aboard and got 
five pounds for me, me that meant to thread on his head, 
the dirty skunk — ^hut it’s the way av the world, sorr; help 
a man that’s down, an’ the moment the spalpeen’s on his 
fate he’ll dance on ye.” 

^^Which is verra true,” said Dick the Banter, who after 
two daj^s had still tar upon him, and was wrapped in a 


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201 


woman’s shawl; “but will ye postpone your thirdly, and go 
below to the doctor, who’s wanting ye to see the gear?” 

They had not yet shown me the engines of the nameless 
ship, and I welcomed the opportunity, grown weary with 
watching the dull green of the sea and the monotony of the 
sky-laden clouds. Dick led the way quickly from the gal- 
lery to the lower deck, and thence down an iron ladder to 
the great engine room. Here truly was a wondrous sight: 
the sight of three sets of the most powerful engines that 
have yet been placed in a battle-ship. Each of them had 
four cylinders, eighty inches in diameter; and all were 
driven by the hydrogen from the huge gasometers which 
our holds formed. The gas itself was made by passing the 
steam from a comparatively small boiler through a coke 
and anthracite furnace, the coke combining with the oxygen 
and leaving pure hydrogen. The huge cylinders drove up- 
ward with a double crank to carry their motion to the screw; 
and I found that the difficulty of starting and reversing 
was overcome by an intermediate bevel-wheel gearing and 
friction clutch, which could throw the motion off the shaft, 
and allow that instantaneous going astern otherwise im- 
possible in a gas-engine. That day there was a huge fire 
in the furnace, emitting terrific heat and crackling sparks, 
for the men were making gas, in view of a run or two off 
the coast of Ireland. It was more pleasant than I can tell 
you to watch the entire absorption of the gifted engineer, 
in the maze of machinery which surrounded him, to paint 
the paternal pathos of his look as he watched every motion 
and eyed every bearing. The maker of an empire certainly 
he was; the man of mind who, for the time, had given' these 
ruffians the kingship of the sea; had made mockery of the 
opposition of the nations; and, I could not help but reflect 
as I turned away sick at heart at the sight of so much power, 
had caused me to be a prisoner, perhaps for life, in that 
citadel of metal. Yet he was a genius; and to the end of 
my days I shall think, as I thought then, of the superb 
gifts so wasted in their channel, of the masterful intellect 
devoted only to pillage and plunder. 


202 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


In sucli a frame of mind I left the engine-room and 
mounted to the upper deck, to hear the cry, ^‘Land on the 
port bow.” 

It was the coast of Ireland, they told me; and I know 
not if I have ever had a greater pleasure than that distant 
view of my own country gave to me. For it was as though 
I had passed from a dead land to the land of man; from the 
silent ways of night to the first breaking of the God-sent 
day. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


203 


CHAPTER XXII. 

THE ROBBERY OF THE “BELLONIC.” 

Our view of the distant shore of Ireland was a fleeting 
one; and we passed thence almost immediately to the open 
sea, steaming due southwest for some hours, but at no great 
pace. It was not until daybreak on the following morning 
that we reached the track of ocean-bound ships; but our 
voyage was altogether in favor of Black, for the sun had 
scarce risen when Doctor Osbart got me from my bed to 
see what he called my first introduction to business. 

“There’s the Red Cross Line’s Bellonic not a mile off on 
the starboard quarter,” cried he exultingly, “and we’re going 
to clear her. Come out, man, and get the finest breakfast 
you ever tasted.” 

I dressed anyhow, almost as excited as he was, and stepped 
onto the gallery, to see a rolling waste of dull-green break- 
ers, and a sky washed with broken thunder-clouds, through 
which the risen sun was struggling. The wind was keen 
from the south, and drove a fine rain, which lashed the face 
as with a whip; while much spray broke upon us, and there 
was moaning of the cowls and the shrouds, and many signs 
of more wind to come. These atmospheric difficulties 
troubled no one, however, for all eyes were turned to the 
north, where, now almost abreast of us, at a distance of 
half a mile or less, there was the long and magnificent hull 
of the great liner. She was then in the full sunlight, a 
fine spectacle; and I could see her bare decks, trodden only 
by the watch, while a solitary officer paced the bridge. The 
contrast between her sleepy inactivity and our keen alert- 
ness was very marked, for all hands trod our decks, and 
there was a restlessness and an evident ferocity amongst 


204 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


the little group upon the bridge which marked a purpose 
brooking no delay. 

I had begun to ask myself when the work would be done, 
for the liner went at a tremendous pace and was rapidly 
leaving us, when I got my answer with the crash of the 
great gun forward, and the sight of a shell plowing the sea 
fifty yards ahead of the Bellonic. The cries of ^‘Well shot. 
Swearing Dick!’^ had not died away before the effect of the 
call was seen upon the great vessel, whose decks were soon 
dotted with black objects, while three more men appeared 
on the bridge, and the signal flags ran up, and were an- 
swered by us. ^Tour-Eyes” was at our mast, and inter- 
preted the message to Black, who followed all that was done 
without betrayal of emotion, but only with the savage 
anticipation of the predatory instinct. 

^^Signal to ’em to lie to, if they don’t want to go to hell,” 
he said between his teeth, and ^Tour-Eyes” answered: 

^^Ay, ay, sorr;” then, as the signal came, ^^He sez uz he’ll 
say us at blazes afore he bates a knot.” 

^^Give it him for’ard then, and teach him,” roared Black; 
and the shot that answered his command struck the quiver- 
ing hull not twenty feet from the windlass, and you could 
see the splinters carried fifty feet in the air, while the 
shrieks of terror came over the sea to us, and were piercing 
then. 

^^What’s he say now?” asked the Captain, cooler than 
even at the beginning of the work. 

^^Says as he’ll make it warm for ye at New York, and 
if ye come aboard, it’s on yer own head, an’ ye swing fer it 
— he’ll not stop till ye disable him.” 

^^The thick-headed vermin,” hissed Black; ^^give him 
another, amidships this time.” 

The second shot made us reel and shiver as she left us; 
but there was no hit, for we rolled much, and saw the shell 
burst on the far side of the liner. At this, and at the 
failure of a second attempt, the Captain lost patience, and 
gave the order: 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


205 


‘^Full steam ahead, and clear the machine gnns.’^ 

It was almost superb, I admit now, and the excitement 
of it then was upon me, to feel our great ship quiver at the 
touch of the hell, and hound forward with waves of foam 
and spray running from her decks, and each plate on her 
straining as though the mighty force of the engines below 
would rend it from its fellows. 

I had not before known the limit of her speed, or what 
she could do when driven as she then was; and the truth 
amazed me, while it filled me with a strange exultation. 
For we, who had dallied heretofore behind the other, sped 
beyond her as an express train passes the droning goods; 
and coming about, in a great circle, we descended upon her 
as a goshawk upon the quarry. 

The machine guns upon our decks were already cleared; 
the men were stripped, ready for the fray, as tigers for their 
food. Indeed, before I quite understood the purport of 
the maneuver, we were passing the Bellonic at a distance of 
not more than fifty yards; and at that moment it seemed 
as if all the furies of hell were let loose upon our decks. 

Screaming like wild beasts, the men turned the handles 
of the Maxim guns; the halls rained upon the defenseless 
liner as hail upon a sheepfold. I heard fierce curses and 
dull groans; I saw strong men reel and fall their length as 
death took them; the breezes bore to me the wailing of 
women and the sobs of children. 

But we had done the foul work in the one passage, for 
the flag dropped at once upon the liner, and the signal was 
made to us to come aboard. We had gained a horrid tri- 
umph, if such you could call the murders, and it remained 
hut to divide the spoil. 

^^Lower away the launch, you John!” cried Black, ^^and 
take every shilling you can lay hands on. You hear me? — 
and hang up that skipper for a thin-skinned fool.” 

^^By thunder, I^m yours all along,” replied ^^Eoaring 
John”; and then he sang out, ^^Flands for the launch!” 

^^You’d better go as cox,” said Oshart to me, ^^you’ll be 


206 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


amused,” and suggested it to Black, who turned upon me 
a look almost of hate. 

"‘Yes, he shall go,” he cried; “if we swing, he shall 
swing, the preaching lubber! Let him get aboard, or I’ll 
kick him there.” 

I had loathing at the thought of it, but might as well 
have put a pistol to my head there and then as to have 
refused. They bundled me into the launch, and I sat shiv- 
ering at the prospect of the terrors on the deck; but they 
would not leave me when they came alongside, and “Roar- 
ing John” himself drove me up the ladder which was put 
out amidships. Seven of us at last stood on the bridge, 
and were face to face with the captain of the Bellonic and 
four of his officers. 

I have said that I feared the terrors of that deck, but 
the reality surpassed the conception. 

It was a very babel of sounds, of groans, of weeping. 
The ship’s surgeon himself seemed paralyzed before the 
sight of the carnage around him. You looked along the 
length of the vessel, and it was as though you looked upon 
the scene of a bloody battle; for there were dead almost 
in heaps, and wounded screaming, and streams of blood, and 
fragments of wreckage as though the ship had been under 
fire for many hours. But above all this terror, I know of 
nothing which struck me with such fearful sorrow as the 
sight of a fair young English girl lying by the door of the 
great saloon, her arms extended, her nut-brown hair soaked 
in her own blood, while a man knelt over her, and you could 
see his tears falling upon her dead face, and his ravings 
were incoherent and almost those of a maniac. At the 
sight of us he jumped to his feet, and shrieked “Murderers!” 
so continuously that the echo of his cry rang in my ears 
that day, and for many days. 

Meanwhile another scene was passing on the bridge 
between the man John and the captain of the Bellonic. 

“What do you want aboard of my ship?” cried the latter; 
and “Roaring John” answered him with a mocking leer: 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


207 


^'We’ve come aboard to hang you, to begin on!” 

The men with the young officer cocked their revolvers 
at this, and I said in a mad frenzy which would not brook 
silence: 

‘TTou scoundrel, if you touch another soul here ITl shoot 
you myself!” for I had my revolver on me. ^^Do you make 
a business of killing children?” I cried again, and pointed 
to the dead body of the girl-child. 

I donT know who was more surprised, the captain of the 
Bellonic, listening, or the man John. 

^^You cub,” he cried; ^^if you talk to me I’ll skin you 
alive!” but I said quickly: 

^^Gentlemen, these men want every shilling on this ship. 
Give it them now and save your lives, for you have no 
alternative. If you give the money up, you have my word 
that they won’t touch you.” 

^Tf there’s a God above,” exclaimed the young captain, 
^^they shall pay for this day’s work with their lives. I 
hand my specie over under this protest; but don’t deceive 
yourselves — half the war-ships in Europe shall follow you 
within a week.” 

He turned away, and presently the ruffians with me had 
lowered money to the value of a hundred and fifty thousand 
pounds into their launch. The third mate seemed then 
somewhat cowed by my interference, and though he went 
round the ship and cried ^^Bail up!” every time he met a 
passenger, he did not touch one of them. I remained on 
the bridge, a silent spectator of it all; and when at last we 
put off again, and the launch was full of the jewels and the 
money, it seemed that I had passed through a hideous dream. 

At the time, I shrank from the ruffians in the boat as 
from men who were savage fiends and a hundred times as- 
sassins; and their brutality of speech and of threat fell 
upon ears that would not hear; nor did their pretense of 
doing me violence then and there move me one jot. I 
maintained a stubborn indifference, my pistol still in my 
hand, my teeth shut in the defiance of them, until we 
14 


208 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


reached the great craft, and joined Black upon the gallery. 
There the man John explained that I had stood between 
him and his purpose of hanging the skipper of the Bellonic; 
indeed, with such warmth of anger that I thought my end 
had come upon the spot. 

^‘You barking cub,” said Black, more quietly than usual, 
but none the less to be feared for that, ^Vhat d’ye mean 
by interfering with my men and my orders?” 

^^To save you from yourself,” I answered, looking him 
full in the face; ^^you’ve killed children on that ship, if 
that’s news to you!” 

He had a spy-glass in his hand, and he raised it as though 
to strike me; but I continued to look him full in the face, 
and he remained swaying his body slightly, his arm still 
above his head. Then suddenly it dropped at his side, as 
though paralyzed; and he turned away from me. 

^^Get to your kennel,” said he; ‘^and don’t leave it till I 
fetch you.” 

I was glad to escape, if only for a few moments, from the 
danger of it; and I went to my cabin in the upper gallery, 
but not before the angry shouts of the men convinced me 
that Black had risked much on my behalf for the second 
time. Even when my own door was locked upon me, such 
cries as ^^You’re afeard of him!” ^Ts he going to boss you, 
skipper?” and other jeers were audible to me; and the 
uproar lasted for some time, accompanied at the last by the 
sounds of blows, and cries as of men whipped. But no one 
came to me except the negro with my meals; and whatever 
danger there was of a mutiny was averted, as Doctor Osbart 
told me later in the day, by the appearance of a second 
passenger ship upon the horizon. The report of the single 
shot, by which we brought her to, shook me in my berth, 
where I lay thinking of the horrid scenes of the morning; 
and for some time I scarce dared look from my window, 
lest they should be repeated. Only after a long silence 
did I open the port, and see a majestic vessel, not a hundred 
yards from us, with our launch at her side; and I could 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


209 


make out the forms of our men walking amongst the passen- 
gers and robbing them. 

The details of this attack Osbart told me with keen relish 
when he came in to smoke a cigar with me after my dinner. 

‘^We stripped them without killing a man/’ said he with 
hilarious satisfaction, ‘^and took fifty thousand. Black’s 
pleased; for, to tell you the truth, there’s an ugly spirit 
aboard amongst the men, and you upset them altogether 
this morning. I never saw another who could have said 
what you said to the skipper and have lived; but you musn’t 
show on deck for a day or two — they’d murder you to pass 
time; and, as it is, we’ve had to post a man at your door, 
or I doubt if you’d save your skin in here.” 

^^You seem to be making a paying cruise,” I said sarcas- 
tically. 

^^Yes; and it’s funny, for the sea is swarming with war 
vermin. Don’t you feel the pace we’re going now? I 
expect we’re showing our heels to one of them, and shall 
show them a good many times between this and the first of 
next month, though Karl below is grumbling about the oil 
again; you want gallons of it with gas-engines. If we 
don’t pick up the tender to-morrow, it’s a bad lookout.” 

He did not come to me again for three days, but I saw 
from my port early on the following morning that the tender 
was with us; and I concluded regretfully that the difficulty 
of the oil was overcome. On the second day after the 
robbery of the Bellonic, we stopped a third ship; though I 
saw nothing of it, as all the fighting was on the starboard 
side, and my cabin was to port; but there was a sharp fight 
on the third morning with a Cape-bound vessel, and again 
toward the afternoon with one of the North-German Lloyd 
boats homeward bound to Bremerhaven. As before, Os- 
bart, coming to my rooms, delighted to give me the details 
of the captures; and that night he was unusually frivolous. 

^Toor business to-day,” he said, throwing himself into a 
lounge and lighting a cigar; ^ffiot an ounce of specie, and no 
jewelry to mention — and there was no killing, so don’t put 


210 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


on that face of yours. Why, my dear hoy, it was a perfect 
farce! I, myself, argued for twenty minutes with an old 
woman, who sat mewing like a cat on her box, and when I 
got her off it, thinking she had a thousand in diamonds, it 
was full of baby linen. And I’ll tell you a better thing. 
An old Dutch Jew threw a twopenny-halfpenny bundle into 
the sea, and then he was so sick with himself that he went 
in after it. We hooked him out by the breeches with the 
boat-hook; but I believe he wished himself dead with the 
bundle. As for ‘Four-Eyes,’ he took what he thought was 
five hundred in notes from a card-player, but they’re bad, 
dear boy, bad — every one of them.” 

“You don’t seem very depressed about it,” said I. 

“Don’t I?” replied he. “Well, things aren’t all they 
should be. The tender we sent to Liverpool came out in 
a hurry, as they began to watch her, with a mere bucketful 
of oil aboard. We must get oil from somewhere, or we 
shall all swing as sure as we’re doing twenty-eight knots 
now. That’s what I’ve come to tell you about to-night. 
The skipper can’t stand it any more, and is going to run to 
England himself, and see what those almighty smart naval 
people of yours are doing. He’ll take you with him, for it 
would be as good as signing your death-warrant to leave 
you here. Don’t count upon it, though, for we shan’t let 
you out of our sight, and you’ve got to swear a pretty big 
oath not to give us away before you set foot on the tender.” 

I was overjoyed at his saying, but I feared to let him see 
it, and asked with nonchalance, “How do you pick this 
ship up again?” 

“Oh, we fix a position,” he replied, “and they’ll keep it 
every day at midday after ten days. Meanwhile we’re 
running^ north out of the track of the cruisers.” 

“I can’t quite understand why the skipper takes me with 
him this time,” I remarked, endeavoring to draw him, but 
he answered: 

“Ho more can I; between ourselves, he’s been half daft 
ever since you came aboard. Do you know that the man’s 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


211 


more fond of yon, in his own way, than of any living thing? 
I know it. I’m the only one on the ship who does know 
it, and why it is I can’t tell yon. I didn’t think he was 
capable of a hnman feeling.” 

^^It’s very good of him to waste so mnch affection on 
me,” said I, meaning to he derisive, hnt Oshart checked 
me. 

‘^Don’t langh,” he exclaimed; ‘^yon owe yonr life to 
him alone.” 


212 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


CHAPTER XXIIL 
I GO TO LONDON. 

It was a week after this conversation that Captain Black, 
Doctor Oshart and myself entered the 7 :30 train from Rams- 
gate, leaving in the outer harbor of that still quaint town 
the screw tender, now disguised, with the man John and 
eight of the most turbulent among the crew of the nameless 
ship aboard her. We had come without hindrance through 
the crowded waters of the channel, and, styling ourselves a 
Norwegian whaler in ballast, had gained the difficult har- 
bor without arousing suspicion. At the first. Black had 
thought to leave me on the steamer; but I, who had an 
insatiable longing to set foot ashore again, gave him solemn 
word that I would not seek to quit him, that I would not 
in any way betray him while the truce lasted, and that I 
would return, wherever I was, to the tender in the harbor 
at the end of a week. He concluded the conditions with 
the simple words, ^T’m a big fool, but you can come.” The 
others opened their eyes and tapped their foreheads, for 
they believed him to be a maniac. 

I will not pause to tell you my own thoughts when I 
set foot on shore again. So great was my amazement at it 
all that I went some time without collecting myself to see 
that the invisible hand of God, which had led me all 
through, was leading me again — even, as I hoped, to the 
consummation of it. Fearless in this new thought, I sat in 
the corner of the first-class carriage reserved for us in such 
a state of exultation and of hope as few men can have 
known. Before me were the downs of Kent, the open 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


213 


face of an English landscape, the orchard-bound home- 
steads, the verdurous pasture-land. The hedges were 
bedecked with their late autumn flowers; the teams and 
smock-frocked men were going home to the gabled houses 
and the warm-lit cottages. There was odor of the harvest 
yet in the air, and the distant chiming of bells from the 
Gothic tower which rose above the hamlet and the knoll of 
green. Each little town we passed cast from its windows 
bright rays upon the tremulous twilight; a great bar of 
fiery redness cut the lower black of the coming night, 
showing me in shadow the rising of land toward Chatham 
and toward London. Yet it was the peace of the scene 
that came to me with the greatest power; the many tokens 
of home — above all, the thought am in England.” I 
could not help but aerry my memory at this time to the last 
occasion when, with Eoderick and Mary, I had come to 
London in the very hope of getting tidings of this man who 
now sat with me in a Kent-Coast express. Where were 
the others then — the girl who had been as a sister to me, 
and the man as a brother; how far had the fear of my 
death made sad that childish face which had known such 
little sadness in its sixteen years of life? It was odd to 
think that Mary might be then returned to London, and 
that I, whom perchance she thought dead, was near to her, 
and yet, in a sense, more cut off from her than in the grave 
itself. And Black, whom all the Governments were pur- 
suing so lustily, was at my side smoking a great cigar, 
apparently oblivious to all sense of danger or of hazard. 
Life has many contrasts, but it never had a stranger than 
that, I feel sure. 

It was after ten o’clock that the ride terminated; and, 
following Black and Osbart into a closed carriage that 
awaited us, I was driven from the station. I should say that 
we drove for fifteen minutes or more, staying at last before 
a house in a narrow cul-de-sac,, where we went upstairs 
to a suite of rooms reserved for us. After an excellent 
supper Osbart left us, but Black took me to a double-bedded 


214 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


room, saying that he could not let me out of his sight, and 
that I must share the sleeping-place with him. 

^^Boy, if you make one attempt to play me false,” said 
he, ‘^I’ll blow your brains out, though you were my own 
son.” 

Then he went to bed at once in a morose and foreboding 
mood, and I followed his example quickly. 

On the next morning Black quitted the house at an early 
hour after breakfast, but he locked the door of the room 
upon Osbart and myself. ^^Not,” as he said, ^d)ecause I 
can’t take your word, but because I don’t want anyone 
fooling in here.” He returned in the evening at seven 
o’clock, and found me as he had left me, reading a later 
novel of Paul Bourget’s; for Osbart had slept all the after- 
noon, and was always complaining when on shore. 

The view from the window upon a balcony of lead and 
the back windows of near houses was not inviting, and my 
bond had held me back from all idle thoughts of eluding 
him. Life in London under such conditions was little pre- 
ferable to life on the ship, and I had no heart to hear Black’s 
stories of things doing in town, or to examine the many 
purchases of miniatures, and quaint old jewels, which he had 
laid on the dinner-table. 

The following day was Thursday. I shall always re- 
member it, for I regard it as one of the most memorable 
days in my life. Black went out as usual early in the 
morning; his object being, as on the preceding day, to find 
out, if he could, what the Admiralty were doing in view of 
the robbery of the Bellonic; and Osbart, refusing to get up 
to breakfast, lay in bed reading the morning papers. We 
had been left thus about the space of an hour when there 
came a telegram for the doctor, who read it with a fierce 
exclamation. 

""The Captain wants me urgently,” said he, ""and there’s 
nothing to do but to leave you here. We are trusting 
absolutely to you, now; but be quite sure, if you make half 
a move to betray us, it will be the last you will ever make. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


215 


I may return here in ten minutes. You must put up with 
the indignity of being locked in; and, dear hoy, don’t 
trouble yourself to look for sympathy in this place, for 
the man who owns this house is one of us, and, if you call 
out, you’ll get a rap on the head pretty quickly.” 

He went out jauntily, and I watched him, little thinking 
that I should never see him again. When he was gone I 
sat in the great armchair, pulling it to the window, and 
taking up my book. The sensation of being alone in the 
center of London, and unable by my oath to make the 
slightest attempt to help myself, was most curious; yet with 
it all I could not but think that I had touched the culminat- 
ing point, and was near to the end of it for good or for ill. 
From the window of my room I could hear the hum of 
town, the rumbling of ’buses, and the subdued roar of 
London awake. I could even see people in the houses at 
the other side of the leads, and it occurred to me. What if 
I open that casement and call for help? I had given a 
pledge, it is true; hut should a pledge bind under such 
conditions? The sanctity of an oath is a fine thing for 
theological subtlety. I had no such subtlety. I knew that 
the argument in favor of wrong is pleasing to the mental 
palate; and I put it from me, believing that the breaking 
of my bond would put me upon the immoral plane of the 
men to whom it had been given. 

I was in the very throes of such a mental struggle when 
the strange event of the day happened. I chanced to look 
up from the hook I had been trying to read, and I saw a 
remarkable object upon the leads outside my window. It 
was the figure of a man with a collapsible neck, a wonder- 
ful neck, which expanded appallingly, and again was with- 
drawn into a narrow and herring-like chest. The fellow 
might have been thirty years of age; he might have been 
fifty; there was no hair on his face, no color in his hollow 
cheeks; only a nervous movement of the bony fingers, and 
that awful craning of the collapsible neck. I saw in a 
moment that he was looking into my room; and presently. 


216 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


when he had given me innumerable nods and winks, he 
took a knife from, his pocket and opened the catch, stepping 
into the chamber with the nimble foot of a goat upon a 
crag-path. Then he drew a chair up to mine, and, making 
more signs and inexplicable motions of the eye, he slapped 
me upon the knee and said: 

^Tn the name of the law!’’ 

This was uttered with such ridiculous levity that I 
laughed at him. 

^^Yes,” he went on, unmoved, take you by surprise; 
but business, Mr. Mark Strong,” and he became very serious, 
while his neck went out like a yard-measure and he cast a 
quick glance round the room. 

^^Business,” he said, when he had satisfied himself that 
we were alone, ^^and in two words. In the first place I 
have wired to your friend, Mr. Roderick Stewart, and I 
expect him from Portsmouth in a couple of hours; in the 
second, your other friend, the doctor, is under lock and 
key, on the trifling charge of murder in the Midlands, to 
begin with. When we have Captain Black, the little party 
will be complete.” 

I looked at him, voiceless from the surprise of it. The 
magical neck was absorbed in the chest again, and he went 
on: 

needn’t tell you who I am; but there’s my card. We 
have six men in the street outside, and another half-dozen 
watching the leads here. You will be sensible enough to 
follow my instructions absolutely. Black, we know, leaves 
the country to-night in his steamer — yesterday at Rams- 
gate; to-day we do not know where. The probability is 
that he will come to fetch you at seven o’clock — I have 
frightened it all out of the people down-stairs — ^if he does, 
you will go with him. Otherwise, he’s pretty sure to send 
someone for you, and, as you at the moment are our sole 
link between that unmitigated scoundrel and his arrest, I 
ask you to risk one step more, and return at any rate as far 
as the coast, that we may follow him for the last time. 
You’ll do that for us?” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


217 


I looked at his card, whereon was the inscription, 
“Detective-Inspector King, Scotland Yard;” and I said at 
once: 

“I shall not only go t© the coasts but to his tender, for 
I’ve given my word. What you may do in the meantime 
is not my affair; but ” 

“Yes,” he said eagerly, craning his neck again, “ ^for 
God’s sake keep your eye on me,’ that’s what you were 
going to say. Well, we shall do it. We owe it to you 
that we’ve got any clue to the man, and you’re not likely 
to lose anything from the Government by what you’ve 
done.” 

“I suppose he’s made a sensation?” I asked, in simpli- 
city, and he looked as a man who has yesterday’s news. 

“Sensation! There’s been no such stir since the French 
war. There isn’t another subject talked of in any house 
in Europe — but, read that; and, whatever you do, don’t 
make a sign until we give you the clue. It’s not safe 
for me to stay here; he may return any minute. I wish 
you luck of it; and it’s ten thousand in my pocket, any 
way!” 

Detective-Inspector King went as he had come, craning 
his neck, and passing noiselessly over the leads; but he left 
me a newspaper, wherein there was column after column 
concerning the robbery of the Bellonic, and a dish worthy 
of all journalistic sensation-mongering. I read this with 
avidity; with sharp appetite for the extraordinary hope 
which had come so curiously into my life. At last, the 
police were on the trail of Captain Black; yet I saw at once 
that, lacking my help, he would elude them. It was strange 
that, after all, I, who had seemed to fail so hopelessly in my 
enterprise, should at last bring this giant in crime to justice. 
For, if he had not burdened himself with me, he would then 
have left in the tender, and, once in the nameless ship, 
would have defied the world. But now they watched him; 
and from the solitude of my imprisonment I seemed to be 
lifted in a moment to a joyous state of expectation and 
excitement. 


m 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


It was then about three o’clock in the afternoon. I 
heard the hour from a neighboring church; and I recalled 
the detective’s words, ‘‘I have telegraphed for your friend, 
Roderick.” If his anticipations were correct, I should see 
the one man I had the greatest love for within an hour. 
Yet, on recollection, I would have had it otherwise. If 
once I looked on Mary’s face again, I knew that the task 
would be almost beyond my strength; and as it happened, 
it was well that I had not this burden to bear in the last 
hours of the great struggle. For four o’clock struck, and 
five, and no one came; and it was half -past six when at 
last a man unlocked the door of my room, and entered. He 
was one of Black’s negroes. 

^“^Sar will come quick,” said he, ^^and leave his luggage. 
The master waits.” 

He gave me no time for any explanations, hut took me by 
the arm, and, passing from the house by a hack door, he 
went some way down a narrow street, and turned into Pic- 
cadilly. There a cab waited for us, and we drove away, but 
not before one, who stood on the pavement, had made a 
slight signal to me, and called another cab. 

In him I recognized Detective-Inspector King, and I 
knew that we were followed. 


i 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


219 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE SHADOW ON THE SEA. 

We drove rapidly, passing the Criterion, so into the 
Strand, and along the Thames Embankment. Thence we 
went through Queen Victoria Street, past the Mansion 
House, and to Fenchurch Street Station, where we took a 
train for Tilbury. 

The journey was accomplished in something under an 
hour; and when we alighted and got upon the hank of the 
river, I saw a steam-launch with the man John in the bows 
of her. I thought it strange that there was no sign of any 
watchers at this place; hut I entered the launch without a 
word, and we started immediately, going at a great pace 
toward Sheerness; and reached the Xore after some buffet 
with the seas in the open. At this point we sighted the 
tender, and went aboard her, while they hauled up the 
launch, when we made full speed toward the North 
Foreland. 

It was then quite dark, with a stiff breeze blowing right 
abaft. The night, a moonless and very black one, favored 
us altogether for the run which, I did not doubt, we had to 
make against some Government vessel that would follow 
us. But I found to my surprise that the men on the ship 
knew nothing of the dangerous position in which they were, 
and worked with calm disregard to the blackness of the 
night, and to the hazard of the moment. Black I did 
not meet, for they put me into a cabin aft, of which I 
was the sole occupant; and, being ordered by the man 
John, who was half-drunk and very threatening, to get 
below, I turned in shortly after coming aboard, and 


220 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


lay down to reckon with the strange probabilities of the 
hour. 

One thing was very evident. Black had made a colossal 
mistake, from his point of view, in setting foot in England; 
hut the crowning blunder of his life was that fatal act of 
folly by which he had sought to shield me from the men. 
How long the Government had been watching for him, 
or for tidings of me, I could not tell, hut it must have 
been since Koderick had reached Hew York and had told 
all he knew of the ship of mystery and of her owner. 

How the object of letting Black reach his vessel again 
was as clear as daylight; it was not so much the man as 
his ship which they wished to take, and, by following him 
to the Atlantic, they were giving him rope to hang himself. 

But were we followed? I had seen nothing to lead me 
to that conclusion as I came down the Thames; and now, 
favored by an intensely dark night, we promised, if nothing 
should intervene, to gain the Atlantic in two days, and to 
he aboard that strange citadel which was our stronghold 
against the nations. 

This thought troubled me very much, so much that 
sleep was out of the question, and I went above again, 
undeterred by the probability of a difference with the men. 
The night was somewhat clearer when I reached the poop, 
and I could make out the fine flood of light that came from 
the Horth Foreland; while it was evident that we had taken 
the outer passage and should pass on the French side of the 
Goodwins. There were no men aft as I took my stand by 
the second wheel, hut I heard the bawl of the watch forward, 
and a man who wore oilskins was pacing the bridge. I was 
able, therefore, to get a good notion of all things about us; 
and when the moon showed later, the channel seemed full 
of ships. Away toward the Foreland I made out a fleet of 
French luggers standing in close to shore; there were two 
or three colliers returning to the Thames on our port-bow, 
and some English smacks lying-to right ahead of us, the 
moon showing them brightly in a lake of light, their men 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


221 


busy at the nets, or huddled at the tiller as the smacks 
rolled to a choppy sea. But there was no sign of any war- 
ship pursuing; no indication whatever that the tender, then 
steaming at thirteen knots toward Dover, was watched or 
observed by any living being. 

I had just satisfied myself of this, and had become 
depressed accordingly, when I heard a step behind me. I 
turned round quickly, to find that the man John had come 
up to the poop. He was in his oilskins, for there was some 
sea shipped forward, and he greeted me with a savage ferocity 
which was meant to be pleasant. 

‘^Keeping a watch on your own hook, my fine gentle- 
man, eh?” said he; ^^and after my orders for you to be abed 
— that’s pretty discipline, I reckon.” 

I made no sort of answer, but turned my back on him, 
and continued to watch the twinkling lights of Deal. This 
appeared to irritate him, for he put his hand on my shoulder 
roughly, and hissed savagely: 

^'Oh, I guess; you’ve got your fine coat, ain’t you, and 
your pretty airs. Darn me if I don’t take you down a peg, 
skipper or no skipper!” 

His great hand was almost on my throat, and he shook 
me with fearful grip, so that I hit him with my right hand 
just below his heart, and bent him double like a reed. His 
terrible gasps for breath were so alarming that I thought at 
first he would never recover his wind; but when he did he 
drew his knife, and raised his arm to take aim at my throat. 
It is probable that my life ha-d been ended there and then 
had not another watched the scene and suddenly clutched 
the extended wrist. Captain Black had come to us with 
noiseless step; and he gave me then my first knowledge of 
his prodigious physical strength, for he held J ohn’s arm as 
in a vise, and, giving the ruffian’s wrist a peculiar turn, he 
sent the knife flying in the air, and it stuck quivering in the 
deck twenty feet from where we stood. 

^^You long- jawed bully, what d’ye mean by that?” cried 
the skipper, white with anger; and then he twisted the 


222 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


fellow’s arm until I thought he would have broken it. Nor 
did he let him go until he had kicked him the length of the 
poop, and tumbled him, torn and bleeding, upon the main 
hatch below. 

^^Lay your finger on the hoy again and I’ll give you six 
dozen,” he said quietly; and then he came to my side, and 
he stood for a long while leaning on the bulwarks and 
gazing over toward the receding shore. He spoke to me 
at last, hut in a more gentle tone than I had ever heard 
from him — indeed, there was almost kindliness in his voice. 

^^Do you make out anything of a big ship yonder?” he 
asked, pointing almost abaft. 

see nothing hut the hull of a collier,” said I. 

^^Then it’s my sight that’s plaguing me again,” and he 
continued to look as though he had some great purpose in 
satisfy ng himself, while from the fo’castle there came 
shouts of laughter and singing. When he heard this he 
spoke again, hut almost to himself. 

^^Shout away, you scum,” he muttered; ^^shout while you 
can. It’ll he a different tune to-morrow.” 

I was leaning then on the bulwarks almost at his side, 
and presently he addressed himself directly to me, and 
earnestly: 

^^We had a narrow shave to-night. It’s put me out to 
leave the doctor, for he was the best of them — one of the 
only men that I could reckon on. If it hadn’t been for 
him and the Irishman, this lot would have s^vung long ago 
— maybe they’ll swing now. The hounds have got the 
scent; and, God knows, they will follow it! It’s lucky for 
some of them that I had twenty pairs of eyes open for me 
in London, and knew the Government’s game in time to 
get this tender out of Eamsgate; hut you mark me, boy, 
there’s trouble coming, and thick. I’ve gone out without 
a gallon of oil again, and hy-and-by we’re going to run for 
our necks, every man of us.” 

^^What makes you think that?” I asked. 

^Vhat makes me think that? — why, my senses. They’ll 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


223 


follow u3 from some port here, as sure as the wind's rising; 
maybe theydl let us get aboard the ship, and then that'll 
be the beginning of it. But if we only hold out with the 
oil, then let 'em take care of themselves 

‘^And if not?" 

He shrugged his shoulders and was silent; but anon he 
asked again what I thought of a long, rakish-looking 
steamer lying some miles away on the starboard quarter, 
and when I had satisfied him he said: 

^^Come downstairs and get some wine in you, boy;" and 
I went below to his small and not very elegant cabin, where 
he put champagne and glasses on the table. 

^^Let's drink against the thirst we'll have to-morrow," 
cried he, getting quite jovial, and pouring the Pommery 
down his throat as though it had been beer. ^^This is an 
occasion such as we shan't often know — the old ship against 
Europe, and one man against the lot of them! Why, lad, 
if it wasn't for the thought of the oil, I'd get up and dance! 
The lubbers could no more lay a finger on me, given fair 
fight, than they could touch the moon. You see, it's just 
the oil that Karl's feared all along; drive by gas, and you 
want twenty times the grease in your cylinders that you'll 
ever need in a steamship. If there hadn't been that 
break-up north, we'd never have been in this hole; but 
that's one of the risks of a game like this, and I'll play my 
hand out." 

He went on to talk of many other things, but as he did 
not speak of his own past, or of the ship, I began to nod 
with sleep; and presently I found him covering me up with 
a rug and turning out the lamp. I was dead worn out then, 
and must have slept twelve hours at the least, for it was 
afternoon when I awoke, and the sun streamed in through 
the skylight upon a table whereon dinner was set. But 
Black was not in the cabin, and I went above to him on the 
bridge, which he paced with a restless step and a betraying 
haste. There was no land then to be seen; but the clear 
play of sparkling waves shone away to the horizon over a 
15 


324 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


tumbling sea, upon which were a few ships. Upon one of 
these he constantly turned his glass; for she was a long 
screw steamer, showing two funnels and three masts, away 
some miles on the port quarter, and I saw at once that from 
this ship the Captain got all his fear. 

^^Do you make her out?” he said in a big whisper directly 
I came up to him, and then, hushing me, he added, ^^Keep 
your tongue still, and say nothing. That’s a British cruiser 
in passenger paint. She’s come out from Southampton.” 

This was about the very best bit of news he could have 
given me; but I did not let him see that I thought so, for I 
had eyes only for the ship in our wake. She was a long 
boat of the Northumberland class; but there was nothing 
whatever about her to betray her disguise, since she had all 
the look of an Orient, or a P. and 0. liner, and was too far 
away from us to permit a reading of her flag. The men 
evidently had not seen her, or took no notice of her if 
they had; but John upon the bridge followed the move- 
ments of Black with curiosity, and one® or twice turned his 
own glass on the black hull just visible above the horizon. 
He had forgotten the episode of the previous night — when, 
undoubtedly, he was full of drink — and was almost as 
troubled as the skipper. 

^‘What’s he up to?” he asked me in a whisper, as Black 
kept turning his glass toward the hull of the other ship. 
^'Did he get any liquor in him last night? I never saw him 
this way before.” 

And again, after a pause: 

^‘Have you got any eyes for that ship? What’s he flxing 
her like that for? She’s no more than an Orient boat 
by her jib, and if she lays on her course we’ll make it warm 
for her outside.” 

Black heard his last words, and turned round upon him 
savagely: 

‘‘Yes,” he said, “it’ll be warm enough out there for 
them as lives as well as for the dead. Eing down for more 
firing; what’s the lubber at? — ^he’s not giving her thirteen 
knots.” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


22d 


By and by all the crew began to observe Black’s anxiety 
and to crowd to the starboard side; but he told them noth- 
ing, although he never left the bridge, and cursed fiercely 
whenever the speed of the tender slacked at all. It was 
somewhat perplexing to me to observe that, while the great 
ship was undoubtedly following us, she did not gain a yard 
upon us. During the whole of that long afternooon, and 
through the watches of the early night, when I remained 
upon the bridge with Black, we kept our relative distances; 
but, do all we could, the other would not be shaken off; and 
when, after a few hours’ sleep, I came on deck at the dawn 
of the second day, she was still on our quarter, following 
like the vulture follows the living man whose hours are 
numbered. 

^^There’s no humbug about her game,” cried Black, whose 
face was lined with the furrows of anxiety and pale with 
long watching; ^^she means to take us on the open sea, and 
she’s welcome to the course. If I don’t riddle her like a 
sieve, stretch me!” 

This strange pursuit lasted three days and into the third 
night, when I was awakened from a snatch of sleep by the 
firing of a gun above my head. I dressed hurriedly and got 
on deck, where my eyes were almost blinded by a great 
volume of light which spread over the sea from a point 
some two miles away on our starboard bow. We had been 
in the Atlantic then for twenty-four hours, and I did not 
doubt for a moment that we had reached the nameless ship. 
Had there been any uncertainty, the wild joy of the men 
would have banished it. From windlass to wheel our decks 
presented a scene of wild excitement. Above all the shout- 
ing, the raucous laughter, and the threats against the cruiser 
— whose lights showed then less than a mile away — I heard 
the voice of Black, singing, ^^Hands, stand by to lower 
boats!” and the yelping of ^^Eoaring John.” It seemed at 
that moment that we should gain the impregnable citadel 
without suffering one shot, and while I should have been 
happier if the attack had been upon the tender, and my 


226 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


chances of gaining the Government ship thus more sure, I 
was in a measure carried away by the excitement of the 
position, and I verily believe that I cheered with the others. 

At that moment the cruiser showed her teeth. Suddenly 
there was a rush of flame from her bows, and a shell hissed 
above us — the first sign of hel* attempt to stop us joining 
our own ship. The poor shooting excited only the deri- 
sion of the men, who set up their wild ^^halloas!’^ at it; and 
again, when a second shot struck the aft mast and 
shivered it, they were provoked to boisterous merriment. 
But we could make no reply, and those on the nameless 
ship could not fire, for we lay right between them and the 
other. 

^^Hands, lower boats!” yelled Black at this moment, and 
then, leaving no more than ten or fifteen men in the 
steamer, he led the way to the launch. 

We were now no more than a quarter of a mile from 
safety, but the run was full of peril, and, as the launch 
stood out, the nameless ship of a sudden shut off her light, 
if possible to shield us in the dark. But the pursuer in- 
stantly flooded us with her own arc, and, following it with 
quick shots, she hit the jolly boat at the third. Of the eight 
men there, only two rose when the hull had disappeared. 

^'Fire away, by thunder!” cried Black, shaking his fist, 
and mad with passion; ^^and get your hands in: you’ll 
want all the bark you’ve got just now.” 

But we had hauled the men aboard as he spoke, and, 
though two shells foamed in the sea and wetted us to the 
skin in the passage, we were at the ladder of the nameless 
ship without other harm, and with fierce shouts the men 
gained the decks. 

For them it was a glorious moment. They had weathered 
the perils of a city, and stood where they could best face the 
crisis of the pursuit. It was a spectacle to move the most 
stolid apathy: the sight of a couple of hundred demoniacal 
figures lighted by the great white wave of light from the 
enemy’s ship, their faces upturned as they waited Black’s 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


227 


orders, their hands flourishing knives and cutlasses, their 
hunger for the contest betrayed in every gesture. I stood 
upon the gallery high above the seas, and looked down upon 
the motley company, or along the space of the hazy arc to 
the other vessel, and I asked myself again and again. What 
if we shall win — what if this desperate adventurer shall 
again outwit those who have coped with him, and hold his 
mastery of the sea? 

Nor did it seem so improbable that he would. Those 
upon the Government cruiser betrayed their uneasiness 
every moment by casting the beams of their searchlight on 
every point of the horizon; but their signal was unanswered, 
no assuring rays shone out in the distant blackness of the 
night. We two were alone upon the Atlantic, there to 
fight the duel of the nations; and I confess that in the 
unparalleled excitement of the moment I rejoiced that it was 
so; I hoped, even, that the nameless ship would carry the 
hour, so much had she fascinated me, so astounding were 
her achievements. 

This truly was the critical moment in Black’s career. He 
stepped on the bridge to find Karl wringing his hands, and 
^Tour-Eyes” was no less uneasy. 

^Taith, sorr,” said he, as soon as we had come aboard, ^fit’s 
bad times intoirely, if ye’ve no oil — we’ve been working 
two engines for three days, and we’ll be sore put to ut to 
kape the third going, if ye can’t mend us.” 

Karl emphasized the words with stamps and tears and 
frantic gesticulation — not lost upon Black, who advanced to 
the front of the bridge, and called for silence in a voice that 
would have split a berg. A deathlike silence succeeded; 
you could hear the wash of the waves and the moaning of 
the wind: two hundred upturned faces shone ghastly white 
under the spreading beams which the cruiser’s lantern cast 
upon them. 

^^Boys,” cried Black, ^^yonder’s a Government ship. You 
know me, that I don’t run after war-scum every day, for 
that’s not my business. But we’re short of oil, and the 


228 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


cylinders are heating. If we don’t get it in twenty-four 
hours, there’ll be devil’s work, and we shan’t do it. Boys, 
it’s swing or take that ship and the oil aboard her — which’ll 
you have?” 

There was no doubt about their answer — ^there could be 
none. In one way it was almost as if the cruiser herself 
gave reply, for there was the roar of a great gun when 
Black had finished speaking, and a shot hissed from above 
our poop and burst in the seas beyond us. A mighty shout 
followed, but was converted instantly into a cry of warning, 
as the forward hands sang out: 

^‘Look out aft — the torpedo!” and other hands took up 
the cry, yelling ^‘The torpedo! The torpedo!” 

The tiny line of foam was just visible for a second in 
the way of the light; but, the moment the cruiser had shot 
it from her tube, she extinguished her arc, leaving us to 
light the waters with our own. There was no difficulty 
whatever in following the line of the deadly message, and 
for a moment every heart, I doubt not, almost stood still. 

“Full speed astern!” roared Black, forgetting himself, 
but instantly ringing the bell, and the nameless ship moved 
backward, faster and yet faster. But the black death- 
bearer followed her, as a shark follows a death-ship; we 
seemed even to have backed into its course — it came on as 
though to strike us full amidships. 

The excitement was almost more than I could bear: I 
turned away, waiting for the tremendous concussion; I 
heard awful curses from the men, the cowardly shouting of 
“Roaring John,” the blasphemies of “Dick the Ranter.” 
I knew that Black alone was calm; and at the last I fixed 
my eyes on him when the head of the torpedo’s foam was not 
thirty yards away from us. In that supreme moment the 
power of the man rose to a great height. He grasped the 
situation with the calmness of one thinking in bed; and 
waiting motionless for some seconds, which were seconds 
almost of agony to the rest of us, he cried of a sudden: 

“Hard a-starboard!” and the helm went over with a 
run. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


m 


The movement was altogether superb. The great ship 
swung round with a majestic sweep, and as we waited 
breathlessly, the torpedo passed right under our bow, miss- 
ing the ram by a hair’s breadth. The reaction was nigh 
intolerable; the men waited for some seconds silent as the 
voiceless; then their cheers rang away over the seas in a 
great volume of sound, which must have re-echoed down in 
the caverns of the Atlantic. 

‘^You, Dick,” ordered Black, ‘h’eturn the lubbers that, 
or I’ll whip you;” and Dick, who had got his wits back, 
replied: 

^^Skipper, if I dinna dive into their internals, gie me sax 
dozen.” 

^'Hands to quarters,” continued the skipper; ^‘let no man 
show himself till I call, then him as doesn’t fight for all he’s 
worth, let him prepare to swing.” 

With this there fell a great busyness, the men going, 
some to the turrets, some to the magazines below. 

Black had not noticed me during the episode of the 
torpedo, but he turned round now, and, seeing that I stood 
near him, he beckoned me into the conning-tower with him. 
It was a chamber lined with steel with a small glass for the 
look-out, and electric knobs which allowed communication 
with the engine-rooms, the wheel, the turrets, and the 
magazines. From that pinnacle of metal you could navigate 
the ship, and there Black fought the battle of that night and 
of the days following. And as I stood at his side I 
learned from his running comments much of the course of 
the fight. 

^^Boy,” he said, ^Vhat I’m worth I’m going to show 
this night; and, as your eyes are younger than mine, I’m 
going to borrow the loan of them. That hen-coop yonder 
with the Government flag on her isn’t far from company, 
you may be pretty sure. She’s help near, and from that 
help I’m going to cut her off, and quick. Take your stand 
here by me, and watch the seas while I manage the light.” 

He had his hand on a little tap which enabled him to 


230 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


throw his arc upon every point of the horizon, and, as the 
light traveled, he asked me: 

‘‘Do you make out anything? Is there more of ’em at 
her heels?” . 

“Nothing that I can see; she seems alone.” 

“Then God help her, though we’re only running two 
engines. Now watch the shot.” 

The focus was then upon the cruiser, whose own light 
kept playing upon the horizon as though searching for a 
convoy she awaited. But when the conning-tower shook 
with the thunder of our fore-gun, the other reeled, and 
her arc-light went out with a great flash. 

“That’s a hit,” I exclaimed, with ridiculous want of con- 
trol; “I believe you’ve struck her abaft the funnel. Yes, I 
can see the list on her; you’ve hit her clean.” 

His face never moved at the intelligence, hut he rang 
the order, “Hard to port!” and we weathered round, show- 
ing our aft turret to the enemy, whose bark for the moment 
was stilled. 

“Watch again,” said Black, as he rang to the turret cham- 
ber, and the aft gun roared; but I could not see that the 
shot struck, and I told him so. 

.“I’ll give that parson a dozen if he does that again,” he 
remarked, unmoved by the crash of a shot which struck us 
right under our turret. Then he took a cigar, and spoke 
between his teeth when he had lighted it: 

“There’s twelve inches of steel there,” he said with a 
laugh; “let ’em knock on it and welcome. Don’t you 
smoke? — I always do; it keeps my head clear.” 

Two more shots, one right above the engine-room and 
the second at the ram, answered his levity. 

“Come on, you devils!” he blurted out with glee. “Come 
in and dance, by thunder, while I play ye the tune! Now 
hearken to it.” 

We came up again, and fired at the cruiser, hitting her 
right under the funnel, and a second time near her fore 
gun, so that you could see her reel and shiver even under 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


231 


the rays of the search-light. Nor did she answer our firing, 
but rolled to the swell apparently out of action. All this 
I could see, and I answered the skipper’s hurried and anxious 
questions as every fresh movement was visible. 

What’s she doing, eh?” he asked. “Did that stop her? 
Is she coaling up, or does she signal? Lord, if I had the oil, 
I’d sweep the sea from New York to Queenstown. What is 
it, boy? — why don’t you answer me?” 

“You don’t give me time; but I can see now. 
She’s coaling up, and there are men forward working with 
oars.” 

“Do you say that?” he said, pushing me away from the 
glass. “Do you say that she’s coaling? By thunder, you’re 
right! We’ll have her oil yet; and then let them as come 
after me look to themselves!” 

As he said the last word he stepped from the conning- 
tower to the bridge, and I followed him. 

There, at the distance of a third of a mile away on the 
starboard bow, was the crippled cruiser, helpless by her 
look; and our light fell full upon her, showing men in 
great activity on her decks, and others running forward, as 
though there were danger also in the fo’castle. The night 
around us was very dark, and the huge, heaving swell shone 
black as pitch in mountains and cavities below the gallery. 
We two were alone there upon the ocean, finishing that 
terrible duel — ^if, indeed, the end had not come, as I thought 
from the silence of the other. 

“Skipper, are you going aboard her now?” asked the 
man “Bearing John,” who came to us on the bridge. 
“She’s done by her looks, and you’ll get no oil if ye delay. 
Karl there, he ain’t as comfortable as if he were in 
his bed.” 

The little German was very far from it. He was almost 
desperate when minute by minute his stock of oil grew less; 
and he ran from one to the other as though we had grease 
in our pockets, and could give it to him. 


232 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


Black took due notice, but did not lose his calm. His 
cigar was now glowing red, and he took it often from his 
mouth, looking at the lighted end of it as a man does who 
is thinking quickly. 

‘^You’re quite sure she’s done, John?” he asked, turning 
to the big man. 

^‘She’s done, I guess, or why don’t she spit? If she’s got 
another kick in her, send me to the devil!” 

The words had scarce left his lips when the cruiser’s aft 
guns thundered out almost together, and one shell passed 
through the very center of our group. It cut the man 
John in half as he might have been cut by a sword, and his 
blood and flesh splashed us, while the other half of him stood 
up like a bust upon the deck, and during one horrible 
moment his arms moved wildly, and there was a horrid 
quivering of the muscles of his face. The second shot 
struck the roof of the turret obliquely, and glanced from it 
into the sea. The destruction seemed to move Black no 
more than a rain shower. He simply cried: ^^All hands to 
cover; I’m going to give ’em a taste of the machine-guns;” 
and we re-entered the conning-tower. Then, as we began 
to move again, I swept the horizon with our light; but this 
time, far away over the black waste of water, the signal was 
answered. 

^^Number two!” said Black quite calmly, when I told 
him, ^^and this time a battle-ship. Well, boy, if we don’t 
take that oil yonder in ten minutes you may say your 
prayers.” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


233 


CHAPTER XXV. 

THE DUMB MAN SPEAKS. 

He put up the helm as he spoke, and brought our head 
round so that we were in a position to have rammed the 
cruiser had we chosen. This was not Black’s object. He 
desired first to cripple her completely, then to finish her 
with the Maxim guns. 

^‘Xow, let’s see what that Scotsman’s worth,” he cried, 
as he laid down his cigar, and spoke through one of the 
tubes. Almost with his words the tower shook with the 
thunder, the twenty-nine-ton gun in the fore turret belched 
forth flame, and the hissing shell struck the steamer over 
her very magazine. We waited for a response, but none 
came. She had received the shot, as it proved, right on her 
great gun; and the weapon lay shivered and useless, cast 
quite free from its carriage, while dead men were around it 
in heaps. 

^^Dick’s earned his dinner,” said Black, taking up his 
cigar again, as he rang twice, and the men rushed to the 
small guns, and prepared to get them into action. “We’ll 
give ’em a little hail this time, for they haven’t the cover 
we have. If we don’t get aboard before the other comes up, 
they get the trick.” 

The nameless ship bounded forward into the night as he 
spoke, and, soon coming up with the helm a-starboard, she 
was not fifty yards away from her long opponent when the 
deadly steel storm began its havoc. For our part, the men 
had cover of a sort in the fore-top, and there were steel 
screens round the deck-guns; but when the cruiser replied 
with her own small arms many fell; and groans, and shrieks. 


234 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


and curses rose, and were audible even to us in the tower. 
Never have I known anything akin to that terrible episode 
when bullets rang upon our decks in hundreds, and the dead 
and the living in the other ship lay huddled together, in a 
seething, struggling, moaning mass. For she had little 
cover, being a cruiser, and we had opened fire upon her 
before such of her men as could be spared had got below. 

^^Let ^em digest that!’^ cried Black, as he watched the 
havoc, and puffed away with serene calmness amidst the 
stress of it all; ^fiet ’em swallow lead, the vultures. I’d sink 
’em with one shot if it wasn’t for their oil; but they ain’t 
alone!” 

It was true. I, who had not ceased to watch that distant 
light which marked another war-ship on the horizon, knew 
that a second light had shone out as a star way over the sea; 
and now, when I looked again at his words, I saw a third 
light, but I had no courage to tell him of it. Indeed, we 
were being surrounded, and the danger was the greater 
for every minute of delay. The cruiser, although she 
suffered so grievously from the storm of lead which we 
rained upon her, had not hauled down her fiag, and still 
replied to our fire, but more feebly. And the search-lights 
of the distant ships were clearer to my view every moment, 
so that I watched them alone at the last; and Black saw 
them, and took a sight from the glass. Then for the first 
time his cigar fell from his lips, and he muttered an ex- 
clamation which might have been one of fear. 

“Boy,” he said, “you should have told me of this. I see 
three lights, and that means a fieet of the devils to come. 
Well, I’ll risk it, as I’ve risked it before. If I can stop ’em 
now, with a shot, the game’s ours; if she sinks, they trump 
us.” 

He gave a long order in careful words down through 
the tube to the turret; and, coming up to position, we fired 
at the cruiser for the last time, hitting her low down in the 
very center of her engine-room. A great volume of steam 
gushed up from her deck, with clouds of smoke and fire; 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


235 


and as all shooting from her small arms ceased, we went 
out to the gallery, and the boats were cast free. A minute 
after, the ensign of the other was lowered, and we had 
beaten her. 

“You, ‘Four-Eyes,’ take the launch, and get her oil,” 
Black sang out at the sight; “you’ll have five hands, that’s 
all you want. Go sharp, if you’d save your skins!” 

I stood on the gallery, and watched the passage of the 
small boat, which was at the side of the maimed cruiser 
almost in a moment. There was no longer any resistance to 
our men, for the hands of the other ship had too much work 
of their own to do. I saw some running quickly to the aft 
boats, while some were bearing wounded from below, and 
others stood beneath the bridge, taking orders from a very 
young officer, who had no colleagues in the work. Not 
that there was any confusion, only that awful crying of 
strong men in their agony, of the dying who feel death’s 
hand upon them, of the wounded who had pain which was 
hardly to be endured. For a long time it seemed as though 
no one heard the hail of “Four-Eyes” to be taken aboard: 
and when at last we watched him get on deck, he met with 
no resistance, but did as he would. Under the spreading 
rays of our great arc you could follow the whole scene as 
though by day — the hurrying crowd of seamen, the work 
at the boat, the fear and terror of it all. And you could 
see at the last a sight which to Black had more import than 
anything else in that picture of distress and desolation. 

The great ship began to heel right over. Her stern came 
high out of the water, so that her screws were visible. She 
dipped her fo’castle clean under the" breaking sea; and so 
she rode during some terrible minutes. Her own men now 
cast off their boats anyhow, leaving the wounded, who 
cursed, or implored, or prayed, or shrieked; but “Four- 
Eyes” did not come, and Black raved, looking away where 
the search-lights of the other ships now showed their rapid 
approach. To this extraordinary man it was the great cast 
of life. If the cruiser went down and his men got no oil. 


236 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


we should infallibly be taken by the war-ships then coming 
upon us; and I wonder not that in that moment he lost 
something of his old calm, pacing the bridge with nervous 
steps, and alternately cursing or imploring the men who 
could not hear. 

^^Why don’t they come?” he asked desperately. ^‘The 
lazy, loitering snails! What are they doing there? Du 
you see her heeling? She can’t weather that list another 
five minutes. Dick! for God’s sake signal to them — the 
creeping vermin! Ahoy, there! Do you hear me? You 
aboard, are you looking to live to-morrow, or will you lay a 
hundred fathoms under — look, boys! do you see them 
lights? They’re war-ships — three of ’em! We’ve got to 
show ’em our heels, and we can’t — we’ve no oil, not a gallon ! 
And they’re taking their ease like fine gentlemen aboard 
there — the guzzling swine — ^but I’ll stir ’em! You Dick, 
fire a shot at ’em!” 

Dick had just answered him, saying, ^^Ay, Captain, I’ll 
gie him a wee bit o’ iron in his gizzard,” when his further 
words were broken on his lips, for our hands appeared at 
the ladder of the doomed steamer, and they tumbled into 
the launch anyhow, flying madly from her side as she 
plunged to a huge sea, and with one mighty roll went head- 
long under the surface of the Atlantic. At that moment 
day broke, and, as the silver light of the dawn spread over 
the dark of the sea, we saw three ironclads approaching us 
at all their speed, and then not three miles distant from us. 
But the launch was at our side, and as Black leaned over, 
and the new light lit up his bloodshot eyes and haggard 
face, he asked, with hoarseness in his voice: 

^^Have ye got the oil?” 

^‘Not a drop!” replied the cox. 

The strong man reared himself straight up, and he turned 
to Karl, at his side. In that moment he was really great, 
and I shall never forget the nonchalance with which he 
drew another cigar from his case and lighted it. The two 
men, who had found their calm as the danger thickened, 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


237 


were in perfect accord; and, as one descended the ladder to 
the engine-room with slow steps, the other went again to 
the tower, where I followed him. 

h® said, ‘‘I’ve often wondered how this old ship 
would break up; now we’ll see, but she’s going to bite some 
of ’em yet, if she can’t last.” 

“Are you going to run for it?” I asked. 

“Run for it, with two engines, yes; but it’s a poor busi- 
ness. And we’ll have to fight! Well, who knows? There’s 
luck at sea as well as on shore. If I run, they’ll catch me 
in ten miles; but we’ll all do what we can. Now smoke and 
have a brandy-and-soda. You may not get another.” 

The drink I took, but his calm I could not share. If the 
nameless ship were trapped at last, I had freedom; but 
of what sort? The freedom of a bloody fight, the lottery of 
life, the remote possibility that, the ship being taken, I 
should get to the shelter of the war- vessels. The man soon 
undeceived me on both points. 

“If we’re out-maneuvered and crippled in what’s com- 
ing,” said he, “I have given Karl my orders. This ship 
I’ve built and loved like a child isn’t going to knuckle under 
to any man living. She’s going to sink, lad, and we’re all 
going to blazes with her! What’s the odds? A man must 
die! Let him die on his own dunghill, say I, and a fig for 
the reckoning! We shall last out as long as we can, and 
then we’ll let the cylinders fill with hydrogen, and blow her 
up. But you’re not smoking.” 

The threat, so jaunty yet so terrible, was almost like a 
sentence of death to me. I looked from the glass of the 
tower, and saw the foremost ironclad but two miles away 
from us, and the others were sweeping round to cut us off 
if we attempted flight. In the old days, with the nameless 
ship at the zenith of her power, we should have laughed at 
their best efforts — have flowm from them as a bird from a 
trap. But we lay with but two engines working, and a 
speed of sixteen knots at the best. Nor did we know from 
minute to minute when another engine would break down. 


238 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


At the beginning of this flight we almost held onr own, 
shaping a curious course, which, if pursued, would have 
brought us ultimately to the Irish coast again. For some 
hours during the morning I thought that we gained slightly, 
and those following evidently felt that it would be a waste 
of shell to fire at us, for they were silent; only great vol- 
umes of smoke came from the funnels of the battle-ships, 
and we knew that their efforts to get greater speed were 
prodigious. 

We ran in this state all the morning, our men silent and 
brooding; Black smoked cigar after cigar with a dogged 
assumption of indifference; the German came to us often 
with his desperate gestures and his woe-hegone face. It 
was well on in the afternoon before the position changed in 
any way, and I had gone down with the Captain to the lower 
saloon to make the pretense of lunching. There we sat — 
^Tour-Eyes” with us — a miserable trio, cracking jokes, and 
expressing desperate hopes; sending up the negro every 
other moment to learn how the ironclad lay, and much 
comforted when at the fifth coming he said — 

^^You gain, sar, plenty, sar; you run right away, sar.” 

^‘We do?” cried Black, who jumped from his seat and 
ran up the companion-way to confirm the tale, and he 
shouted down to us, ‘^Crack another bottle, if it’s the last, 
and give it to the nigger; we’re leaving them!” 

His elation was contagious. ^‘Four-Eyes” awoke from 
his lethargy and drank a pint of the wine at a draught. The 
nigger put out a glass with a satisfied leer. The Captain 
took a bottle and laid his hand on the cork. But there it 
stayed, for at that moment there came a horrible sound of 
grating and tearing from the engine-room, and it was suc- 
ceeded by a moment of dead and chilling silence. 

^^The second engine’s gone!” said a man above, quite 
calmly, and we knew the worst, and went on deck again. 

We found the crew sullen and muttering, but Friedrich, 
the engineer’s eldest son, sat at the top of the engine-room 
ladder, and tears rolled down his face. The great ship still 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


239 


trembled under the shock of the breakdown and was not 
showing ten knots. The foremost ironclad crept up minute 
by minute; and before we had realized the whole extent of 
the mishap, she was within gunshot of us; but her col- 
leagues were some miles away, she outpacing them all 
through it. 

‘^Bedad, she signals to us to let her come aboard,’’ said 
^Tour-Eyes,” who watched her intently. 

‘^Answer that we’ll see her in chips first,” said Black, 
and he called for Karl and made signs to him. 

^Tf so be as ye don’t come to, he’ll be about to fire upon 
ye,” cried ^Tour-Eyes” again, who stood at the fiagline, 
and this time Black thought before he answered — 

‘‘Tlien parley with ’em; we’ll come alongside and hear 
their jaw.” 

There was a leer of positive devilry on his face as he said 
this, and he beckoned me into the conning-tower, when he 
closed the tower and bade me watch. Those on the battle- 
ship made quite sure of us now, for they steamed on and 
came within three hundred yards of us. Black watched 
them as a beast watches the unsuspecting prey. He stood, 
his face knit in savage lines, his hand upon the bell. I 
looked from the glass, and saw that no man was visible upon 
our decks, that our engines had ceased to move. We were 
motionless. Then in a second the bells rang out. There 
was again that frightful grating and tearing in the engine- 
room. The nameless ship came round to her helm with a 
mighty sweep; she foamed and plunged in the seas; she 
turned her ram straight at the other; and, groaning as a 
great stricken wounded beast, she roared onward to the 
voyage of death. I knew then the fearful truth Black 
meant to sink the cruiser with his ram. I shall never for- 
get that moment of terror, that grinding of heated steel, 
that plunge into the seas. Holding with all my strength 
to the seat of the tower, I waited for the crash, and in the 
suspense hours seemed to pass. At last, there was under 
the sea a mighty clap as of submarine thunder. Dashed 


10 


240 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


headlong from my post, I lay bruised and wounded upon 
the floor of steel. The roof above me rocked; the walls 
shook and were bent; my ears rang with the deafening 
roar in them; seas of foam mounted before the glass; 
shrieks and the sound of awful rending and tearing drowned 
other shouts of men going to their death. And through 
all was the hysterical yelling of Black, his cursing, his de- 
fiance, his elation. 

‘^Come and see,” he roared, dragging me by the collar to 
the gallery; ^‘come and see. They sink, the lubbers! They 
go to blazes every one of them. Look at their faces, the 
crawling scum. Ha! ha! Die, you vermin! as you meant 
me to die; fill your skins with water, you sharks! I spit on 
you! Boys, do you hear them crying to you? Music, finei, 
music! Whofil dance when the devil plays? Dance, yort 
lazy blacklegs; dance on nothing! Ha, ha!” 

Ho man has ever looked on a more awful sight. We had 
struck the battle-ship low amidships — we had crashed 
through the thinnest coat of her steel. She had heeled 
right over from the shock, so that the guns had cast free 
from the carriages, and the seas had filled her. Thus for- 
one terrible minute she lay, her men crowding upon her 
starboard side, or jumping into the sea, or making desperate 
attempts to get her boats free; and then, with a heavy 
lurch, she rolled beneath the waves; and there was left but 
thirty or forty struggling souls, who battled for their lives 
with the great rollers of the Atlantic. Of these a few 
reached the side of our ship and were shot there as they 
clung to the ladder; a few swam strongly in the desperate 
hope that the brutes about me would relent, and sank at 
last with piercing and piteous cries upon their lips; others 
died quickly, calling upon God as they went to their rest. 

For ourselves we lay, our bows split with the shock, our 
engine-room in fearful disorder, our men drunk with 
ferocity and with despair. The other war-ships were yet 
some distance away; but they opened fire upon us at hazard, 
and, of the first three shells that fell, two cut our decks; 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


241 


and sent clouds of splinters, of wood, and of human flesh 
flying in the smoke-laden air. At the fifth shot, a gigantic 
crash resounded from below, and the stokers rushed above 
with the news that the fore-stoke-hold had three feet of 
water in it. The hands received the news with a deep 
groan; then with curses, and recriminations. They bel- 
lowed like bulls at Black; they refused all orders. He shot 
down man after man; while I crouched for safety in the 
tower; and they became but fiercer. Our end was evidently 
near; and, knowing this, they fell upon the liquor, and 
were worse than fiends. Anon they turned upon the Cap- 
tain and myself, and fired volleys upon the conning-tower; 
or, in their terrible frenzy, they pitched themselves into the 
sea, or raved with drunken songs, and vented their venge- 
ance upon the Irishman, “Four-Eyes,” chasing him wildly, 
and stabbing him with many cuts, so that he dropped dying 
at our door, with no more reproach than the simple words — 

“God help me! but had I died in me own counthry I 
would have known more pace.” 

Through all this our one engine worked; and so slowly 
did the great ironclad draw upon us that the end of it all 
came before they could reach us. Suddenly the men 
rushed to the boats and cast them loose. Fighting with the 
dash of madmen, they crowded the launch, they swarmed 
the jolly-boat and the lifeboat. Even the engineer’s son 
felt the touch of contagion, and joined the melee. We 
watched their insane efforts as boat after boat put away and 
was swamped, leaving the devilish men to drown as the 
worthier fellows had drowned before them; and amongst 
the last to die was “Dick the Eanter,” who went down with 
blasphemies gurgling upon his lips. When six o’clock 
came. Black and Karl and myself were alone upon the 
great ship; and in the stillness which followed there came 
another weird and wild and soul-stirring shriek — the cry of 
^the dumb engineer, who found speech in the great catastro- 
phe. Then Black pulled me by the arm and said — 


242 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


"'Boy, they’ve left nothing but the dinghy. The old 
ship’s done; and it’s time you left her.” 

"And you?” I asked. 

He looked at me and at Karl. He had meant to die with 
the ship, I knew; but the old magnetism of my presence 
held him again in that hour. He followed me slowly, as 
one in a dream, to the davits aft, and freed the last of the 
boats, overlooked by the hands in their frenzy and their 
panic. Then he went to his cabin, and to the rooms be- 
low; and I helped him to put a couple of kegs of water in 
the frail craft, with some biscuit, which we lashed, and a 
case of wine, which he insisted on. 

The preparation cost us half-an-hour of time, and when 
all was ready, the captain went to the engine-room and 
brought Karl to the top of the ladder; but there the Ger- 
man stayed, nor did threats or entreaties move him. 

"He’ll die with the ship,” said Black, "and I don’t know 
that he isn’t wise”; but he held' out his hand to the genius 
of his crime, and after a great grip the two men parted. 

For ourselves, we stepped on the frailest craft with which 
men ever faced the Atlantic, and at that moment the first 
of the ironclads fired another shell at the nameless ship. 
It was a crashing shot, but it had come too late to serve 
justice, or to wreck the ship of mystery; for Karl had let 
the hydrogen into the cylinders unchecked, and with a 
mighty rush of fiame, and a terrific explosion, the craft of 
gold gave her "Vale!” And in a cascade of fire, lighting 
the sea for many miles, and making as day the newly-fallen 
night, the golden citadel hissed over the water for one mo- 
ment, then plunged headlong, and was no more. 

A fierce fire it was, lighting sea and sky — a mighty holo- 
caust; the roar of a great conflagration; the end of a mon- 
strous dream. And I thought of another fire and another 
face — ^the face of Martin Hall, who had seen the finger of 
Almighty God in his mission; and I said, "His >vork is 
done!” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


243 


But Black, clinging to the dinghy, wept as a man stricken 
with a great grief, and he cried so that the coldest heart 
might have been moved— 

‘‘My ship, my ship! Oh, God, my ship!” 


244 


THE IRON PIRATE, 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

A PAGE IN BLACK’S LIFE. 

I know not whether it was the amazing spectacle of the 
nameless ship’s end, or the sudden coming down of night, 
that kept attention from our boat when the great vessel had 
sunk; but those on the ironclads, which were at least two 
miles from us as we put off, seemed to be unaware that any 
boat from the ship lived; and, although they steamed for 
some hours in our vicinity, they saw nothing of us as we 
lay in the plunging dinghy. When night fell, and with it 
what breeze that had been blowing, we lost sight of them 
altogether, and knew for the first time the whole terror of 
the situation. Black had indeed recovered much of his old 
calm, and drank long draughts of champagne; but he sat 
silent, and uttered no word for many hours after the end 
of that citadel which had given him such great power. As 
for the little boat, it was a puny protection against the 
sweeping rollers of the Atlantic, and I doubt not that we 
had been drowned that very night if a storm of any moment 
had broken upon us. 

About midnight a thunderstorm got up from the south, 
and the sea, rising somewhat with it, wetted us to the skin. 
The lightning, terribly vivid and incessant, lighted up the 
whole sea again and again, showing each the other’s face, 
the face of a worn and fatigue-stricken man. And the 
rain and the sea beat on us until we shivered, cowering, and 
were numbed; our hands stiffened with the salt upon them, 
so that we could scarce get the warming liquor to our lips. 
Yet Black held to his silence, moaning at rare intervals as 
he had moaned when the great ship sank. It was not until 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


245 


the sun rose over the long swell that we slept for an hour 
or more; and after sleep we were both calmer, looking for 
ships with much expectation, and that longing which the 
derelict only may know. The Captain was then very quiet, 
and he gazed often at me with the expression I had seen on 
his face when he saved me from his men. 

“^^Boy,” he said, “look well at the sun, lest you never 
look at it again.” 

“I am looking,” I replied; “it is life to me.” 

“If,” he continued, very thoughtful, “you, who have 
years with you, should live when I go under, you’ll take 
this belt I’m wearing off me; it’ll help you ashore. If it 
happen that I live with you, it’ll help both of us.” 

“We’re in the track of steamers,” said I; “there’s no 
reason to look at it that way yet. Please God, we’ll be 
seen.” 

“That’s your way, and the right one,” he answered; “but 
I’m not a man like that, and my heart’s gone with my ship; 
we shall never see her like again.” 

“You built her?” I said questioningly. 

“Yes,” he responded, “I built her when I put my hand 
against the world, and, if it happened to me to go through 
it again, I’d do the same.” 

“What did you go through?” I asked, as he passed me 
the biscuits and the cup with liquor in it, and as he sat up 
in the raft I saw that the man had death written on his 
face. 

But at that time he told me nothing in answer to my 
question, and sat for many hours motionless, his glassy eyes 
fixed upon the bottom of the boat. In the afternoon, how- 
ever, he suddenly sat up, and took up his thread as if he had 
broken it but a minute before. 

“I went through much,” said he, gazing over the 
mirror-like surface of the trackless water-desert, “as boy 
and man. I lived a life which was hell; God knows 
it.’" 


246 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


I did not press him to tell me more, for in truth I 
shivered so, and was so numbed that even my curiosity to 
know of this life of crime and of mystery was not so 
paramount as to banish that other thought: Shall we live 
when the sun sinks this night? But he found relief in 
his talk, and, as the liquor warmed him, he continued faster 
than before: 

^‘1 was a stepson, boy; bound to a brute with not as 
much conscience as a big dog, and no more human nature 
in him than a wild bull. My mother died three months 
after he took her, and I^m not going to speak about her, 
God help me; but if I had the man under my hands that 
treated her so, I’d crush his skull like I crush this biscuit. 
Well, that ain’t my tale; you ask me what I went through, 
and I’m trying to tell you. Have you ever wanted a meal ? 
Ho, I reckon not; and you can’t get it in your mind to know 
what living on bones and bits for more than a couple of 
years means, can you, as I lived down in my home at Glas- 
gow, and often since out West and at Colorado? I’d come 
out from Scotland as a bit of lad not turned thirteen, and 
I sailed aboard the Savannah City to Montreal, and then to 
Rio, and in Japan waters; and for three years, until I de- 
serted at ’Frisco, no devilry that human fiends could think of 
was unknown to me. But they made a sailor of me; and 
full-rigged ship or steamer I’d navigate with the best of ’em. 
After that I went aboard a brig plying between ’Frisco and 
Yokohama, and there I picked up much, leaving her after 
two years to get across to Europe, and do the ocean trade 
with the Jackson line between Southampton and Buenos 
Ayres. It was in that city I met my wife. I married her 
in Mendoza; for she came of rich folk, who spat on me, and 
was only a bit of a girl who’d never wanted a comfort on this 
earth until that time, and who starved with me then and for 
years. My God! my whole body burns when I think of it 
— that bit of a creature, who’d never known the lack of a. 
gratification, and who was dragged down to every degrada- 
tion by my curse.” 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


247 


I looked at him in surprise, and he answered me in- 
stinctively, 

‘^Yes, by my curse. Maybe you don’t know what it was, 
for I’ve held it under a bit since she died, hut I was a 
drunkard then — a maniac when I had the liquor on me, a 
devil from whom all men fled. Not that there isn’t work 
for any man in that country — work, and well paid — ^but 
I had the fever on me, and — well, we sank very low. 
How I lived I can’t tell you; hut after a couple of years of 
it I worked a passage to New York, and there my son was 
born. When he grew up he was the very image of you. 
That’s why I gave you your life when you came on my 
ship.” 

The words were spoken in that gentle voice he could 
command sometimes, and, as he uttered them, he took my 
hand and gave it a great grip. I understood then that 
curious look he had given me at our first meeting; his par- 
tisanship for me against the men; and that last great risk 
which had brought the end of it all, if it had not brought 
death to both of us. Somewhere down in that human well 
of crime and ferocity there was a spring of purer water. 
I had set it free when I brought old memories to him, and 
I owed it to him that amazing chance that I lived through 
the frenzies of Ice-haven. 

^^Yes,” said Black, observing my surprise, and passing 
me the liquor which he compelled me to drink, ^^my boy 
was your height, and your build, and he had your eyes. 
What’s more, he had your grit, and there was no cooler 
hand living. Not that he owed much to me, for I was 
mad drunk half his life; and, when sober, I lived as often as 
not in prison for what I had done in liquor. It was when 
he was nearly twenty that the change came; for he began 
to bring home money, do you see? and, what with his work 
and the way he talked to me, I set myself to get the craving 
under; and I was a new man in one year, and in two my 
brain came back to me, and I made the discovery that I was 
not born a fool. You may reckon I worshipped the lad! 


248 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


God knows, he and his mother did for me more than man 
or woman ever did for a breathing body. And when my 
wits came back to me, and I thought what I might have 
done, and what I had done, and that my boy had borne it 
all only to drag me to my reason at last, I could have ended 
it there and then. Maybe I should have done it if a new 
turn hadn’t come in my life’s road. It was when I was at my 
lowest, and we were sore put to it to get food in New York, 
that I was taken up by a man who was going to Michigan 
seeking copper. My lad was then working with a Mike 
Leveston in the city — a land-agent for the up-country work, 
and the owner of a line of small brigs running between 
Boston and the Bahamas; but times had gone bad with him, 
and the boy, who had been getting good money, found him- 
self with no more than enough to keep him, let alone his 
mother. Well, I thought the thing out, and, as my partner 
had some capital and agreed to let me have ten dollars a 
week anyway, I made an agreement with Leveston that he 
should allow the wife and the boy enough to live on for six 
months, and I set out for the State where the copper find 
was beginning to attract notice, and in a year I was a made 
man. We found the ore as thick as clay, and, under the 
excitement of it, I kept my head, and the drink craze never 
touched me. When the money came in, I made Leveston 
my New York agent, and sent him enough to set up the 
woman who stood by me all through in more luxury than 
she’d known since she married me. For a while her letters 
told me of her new life, and I kept them under my shirt as 
I would have kept leaves of gold. In the spring, I sent the 
agent twenty thousand dollars for her; and I got his 
acknowledgment, saying she’d gone down to Charleston to 
see about the boy’s work there, and I should hear from her 
on her return. 

‘^1 think this was about eighteen months after I left 
New York, and from that time my wife ceased to write to 
me, and I heard nothing more from the lad. We’d been 
doing such work in the mine that we had enough money 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


249 


to pay our way for life, and we hoped to make an almighty 
pile before many years had gone; hut I couldn’t hear not 
hearing from them as I worked for, and in the fall of the 
year I went hack to New York — under protest from my 
partner, who could do nothing without me — and I never 
rested until I reached my house in Fifty-fourth Street. I 
found it shut up, the furniture gone, not a sign of living 
being in it; and when I went to make inquiries among my 
neighbors, they told me what came to this. My wife had 
died of starvation — ^nothing less, hoy, for the devil I’d sent 
the money to had doled out to her and the lad a few 
dollars for the first year, hut had cut and run when the 
big sums reached him; and he took the boy with him on 
the pretense of a job in the Southern city. My son, you 
see, had turned naturally to architect’s work, and was 
induced by this long-toothed vulture to quit New York, 
because they heard from the mine that I was dead — that I 
died, as Leveston had told them, of small-pox — and left not 
a shilling for them. God! if only I could bring him to life 
to clutch his cursed throat again!” 

^^But what became of your son?” I asked, as he ceased 
speaking, and we lay riding gently over the long rollers, 
with a great flood of sunlight making the sea as a sheen of 
beaten gold, touched with diamond points where the spray 
broke. Then he went on with it; but you could see some 
awful emotion moving him, and he kept plying himself 
with drink, which made his words the fiercer. 

“What became of the boy?” he repeated after me. “Why, 
he went south in the hope of sending money to his mother; 
and directly he reached Charleston, Leveston shipped him 
on a brig, kno^ving that I must hear of his doings in a 
month or more. He sent the lad to Panama, and there he 
died, one of the first to be stricken in the fever land. They 
buried him in the country, as the Lord is my witness. Then 
I came home — rich, my trunks stuffed with notes, able, if I 
cared, to buy up half the land-agents in New York City; 
and the money I’d got seemed to turn black in my hands 


250 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


when I found that those it was made for needed it no more. 
Not as I knew then of the lad’s death — that I was to hear 
of later; but, free from the drink, I had loved the woman 
who was gone; and I was a madman for days and weeks. 
When I got my head again I changed as I don’t believe any 
man ever changed before; there was something in my mind 
which I could not cope -with. I can’t lay it down any clearer 
than this: It was a hatred of all men that took possession of 
me — a fierce desire to make mankind pay for the wrongs 
I had suffered. I gave myself up to the drink again, but 
not as I did when they named me a drunkard. This time 
I was the master of it; I used it for my purpose; I fed my 
thoughts of vengeance on it; and, while my partner was 
sending me more than a thousand pounds a week from 
Michigan, I remained in New York with the double purpose 
in my head — to get my boy back to me, and to crush the life 
out of the man who had left my wife to die. 

^^All the news I could get at that time was this: The 
boy had left Charleston, ostensibly for the Bahamas, three 
months before I reached New York City; but nothing 
more had been heard of him or the ship. I put the best 
detectives in the city on Leveston’s trail, raining the money 
into their pockets to keep them to the work; and they got it 
out of some of Leveston’s seamen in Savannah that he had 
gone a long cruise in one of his barques to Kio, and even 
farther south. This news was like red-hot iron to my head. 
I knew that I couldn’t touch the man by law, except for 
the robbery of the bit of money, and that I didn’t care a 
brass button about. What I meant to have was his life, 
and I swore that no man should take it but me. Then I 
went into every low haunt in New York. I searched the 
drinking dens of the Bowery; I made friends with all the 
thieves, picked up the loafers, and the starving. The 
parson who’s gone I found running a gambling hell in New 
Jersey; the man Tour-Eyes’ I took from a crimp in Boston; 
John we got later on at Rio, where we bought him from 
the police. I had as fine a crew of scoundrels in a month 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


251 


as ever cursed in a fo’castle; and I shipped them all on the 
screw steamer Rossa, which I bought for six thousand 
pounds from the Eossa Company. She was just on six 
hundred tons, an iron boat built for the meat trade; but we 
knocked her about quick enough, setting three machine- 
guns forward, and fifty Winchester rifles among her stores. 
We put out from Sandy Hook, it must be nearly six years 
ago; and we steamed straight ahead for Rio, where we got 
tidings of Leveston’s barque. She had sailed for Buenos 
Ayres, but they looked for her return within the month, and 
we left again next day, cruising near shore as far as Des- 
terro, where luck was with us. 

remember that morning as if it was yesterday. We 
had struck eight-bells, and the men were going down to 
dinner, when the mate sighted a ship on the port-bow. We 
put straight out to sea at the hail, and within half an hour 
we stood alongside her, and the man who answered my call 
was Mike Leveston. When he saw me hailing him from 
the poop of a steamer, he turned green as the sea about him; 
and he yelled to me to stand off if I didn’t want a bullet in 
me. The sight of him maddened me; I turned the machine- 
gun on his decks, and swept them clear as a grass-field, but 
he lay flat on his face by the taffrail, and he bellowed for 
mercy like a woman. And he got it. I ran the steamer 
alongside him, smashing in his quarter, and when we had 
gripped, I got aboard. Then he groveled at my feet, and, 
as I held my pistol at his head, he gabbled out the news that 
my son was dead — told me that he died at Panama, and he 
screamed for mercy like a hog at the block. But I cut 
his throat from ear to ear with my own knife, and I threw 
his body to the sharks limb by limb as you would throw a 
dead sheep to the dogs. God knows, I was mad than, as I 
have been often since, and am now. My poor son!” 

^^The man told you the truth, then?” 

^^Yes. When I had made chips of his ship I went back 
to Panama, and there got news of the boy. They had buried 
him at Porto Bello, and I stopped there long enough to 


252 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


make his grave decent, and then returned up the coast to 
New York. Coming back, the vermin with me took a fancy 
on the third day out, when three parts of them were drunk, 
to do with a strange brig as they had done with Leveston’s. 
They stopped her with the guns, and cleared her of every 
dollar aboard, sending her to the bottom out of pure devilry. 
I didn’t stop ’em; for I had the madness of the drink on me 
again, and I led ’em at the work then, and when they sent 
a dozen more coasters after the two that had gone on the 
voyage to Sandy Hook. By the time we were in New York 
again, I had got a taste for the new work which nothing 
could cure. It seemed as if I was to revenge on mankind 
the wrong I had suffered from one man; and, more than 
that, I saw there was money in heaps in it. They said at 
home that piracy was played out, but I asked myself, ^How’s 
that? Give me a ship big enough,’ said I, ‘^and under 
certain conditions I’ll sweep the Atlantic.’ There was 
danger enough in the job, and it was big enough to tempt 
that curious brain of mine, which had always dreamed of 
big jobs since I’d been a bit of a boy; and I was fascinated 
with this big idea until I couldn’t hold myself. That’s what 
led me to keep the crew together at New York, and to 
return to Michigan, where I found that the mine was 
making money faster almost than they could bank it, and 
if I was worth a penny, I was worth a million sterling at 
that very time; for my partner behaved square all through, 
and paid my share to the last penny. I stayed with him 
about a couple of months then, giving my wits to the job, 
and it was there I met Karl, the German engineer, who 
had got it into his head that gas was the motor of the near 
future. He talked of using it for the copper work, and 
then of building gas launches for transport; but he didn’t 
know that he’d set me all aglow with another thought, 
which was nothing less than this — ^that I should build a 
steamer driven by gas, and run a game of piracy on the 
Atlantic with her. Do you call it lunacy? Well, other 
men have made good company for such lunatics, the Cor- 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


253 


sican murderer at Moscow among 'em. And what was it to 
be but a fight of one man against the world— a fight to set 
your best blood running fast in your veins, to brace every 
nerve in your body? Boy, I lived for a year on that 
excitement, which was more even than the drink to me. I 
left the mine to cruise again in the Rossa with the old 
hands; but we had added a long "^chaser' to our list of guns, 
and in the three months out we took twenty ships and over 
two hundred thousand in specie. I saw from the beginning 
of it that the one thing we couldn't stand against with a 
coal steamer was the constant putting into port to fill her 
bunkers; and I knew that if we didn't find some haven of 
refuge out of the common run, the day would come when 
we should swing like common cut-throats. I had taken 
Karl on board with me for the trip, and he was the man to 
set both things square. He ran me north of Godthaab in 
Greenland, and put me into the fjord you have known; and 
he drew the plans of my ship, which I made the Italians at 
Spezia build for me — for I had the money, and, as for the 
metal, the phosphor bronze of which I built her — well, that 
was Karl's idea, too. You may know that phosphor bronze 
is the finest material for ship-building in the world, but the 
majority of 'em can't use it on account of the cost of the 
copper. Well, the copper I had, any amount of it; and I 
shipped it to Italy, and the great vessel which your friend 
Hall thought was all of gold had the look of it, and was the 
finest sight man ever saw when under her own colors. 

^^Once the ship was built, our game was easy. She was 
armored heavily amidships; she had two ten-inch guns 
in her turrets, and machine-guns thick all over her; and 
she was the best-fitted ship in her quarters swimming. 
It's a rum thing, but I always had a bit of taste for nice 
things — fine painting, gold work, and stones — and my only 
hobby to speak of has been the buying of 'em. This led me 
to meet your friend Hall. Not that I didn't know him 
from the first, for my men saw him in the yards at Spezia, 
and from that day I never left him unwatched. I followed 


254 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


him to Paris, to Liverpool, to London, when I was ashore; 
but I never brought my ship within a hundred miles of any 
port; and I used to hire yachts and sink ’em in mid-ocean 
when I wanted to reach her. Your friend would be alive 
now if he hadn’t sought to find out where I got to when I 
left port in the La France. But I took him aboard to end 
him, and they shot him off the Needles and lashed him to 
the shrouds of the yacht when we fired her. He was a 
brave man, and indirectly he brought me to this — him and 
you ” 

^‘And the justice of God,” I said, thinking hatred toward 
him again as I remembered Hall’s death. 

^Terhaps,” he answered, ‘‘but you know my history; and 
what’s done can’t be undone. Yet I say again that, if my 
son was alive and was taken from me as he was taken 
seven years ago in Panama, I’d do what I did, though they 
burnt me alive for it. I’ve been agen Europe, and I’ve 
licked ’em, by Heaven; for what they’ve took is only my 
ship, and agen that I’ve a million of their money to put. 
One man with his hand agen the world’s a fine sight, and 
what I’ve claimed I’ve done. Is piracy not worth a centf 
Is it played out, do you tell me? I reckon them as says it 
lies. Give me a ship like mine that can show ’em twenty- 
nine knots; give me the harbor to coal once in six months; 
and I’ll live against the lot of them, fight ’em one by one, 
rule this ocean more sure than any man ever ruled a people. 
I say I’d do it; I should have said, I could have done it, for 
it’s over now, and the day’s gone. Before another twenty- 
four hours you’ll be alone in this dinghy, boy. I’ve death 
on me, and I wouldn’t live without the ship; no, ITl 
go under as she went under — the Lord have mercy on 
me!” 

The firmness of the Captain was near to leaving him in 
that moment, but he pulled himself together with a great 
effort, and sat aft, sculling with the short oar in a me- 
chanical and altogether absent way. The long talk with 
me about his past had exhausted h^m, I thought; and he 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


255 


did not seem disposed to speak again. It was then near 
mid-day, and the sun, being right above us, poured down an 
intolerable heat, so that the paint of the dinghy was hot to 
the hand, and we ourselves were consumed with an un- 
quenchable thirst. Nor could I restrain myself, but drank 
long draughts from the water-kegs, while Black kept to the 
liquor; and was, I saw with fear, rapidly working himself up 
to a state of intoxication. You may ask if the terrors of the 
position came home to us thoroughly in that long day when 
we rode in the bit of a cockle-shell on the sweeping rollers 
of the Atlantic, but I answer you, I do not think that they 
did. The fear of such a position is the after-recollection of 
it. We were in a sense numbed to mental apprehension 
by the vigor of the physical suffering we endured, by that 
overwhelming thirst, by the devouring heat, by the cutting 
spray which drove upon our faces, by the stiffening of our 
clothes when the sun scorched them. Seethed in the brine 
one hour, we were nigh burned up the next; and yet we 
knew that water would soon fail us — that we could not 
hope for life for many days unless we should sight some 
ship, and she in turn should sight us. 

It is, perhaps, only in a small boat that one appreciates 
the magnitude of an Atlantic wave, even when the ocean 
seems comparatively still. Sometimes on a steamer’s deck, 
when there is a heavy wind and the sea is driven before it, 
you may watch a huge roller sweeping the great vessel as a 
pond wave will sweep a match; but at any time from a boat, 
which is, as it were, right down upon the water, you cannot 
fail to be impressed by the onward flow of those mighty 
translucent billows, which rush forward in their course and 
thunder at last upon the granite rocks of the western face 
of Europe. High above you in one moment as hills of 
emerald and of silver, you wait with nerves all braced as 
they come upon you, giving promise that you will be en- 
gulfed in the liquid bosom of the towering mountain; and 
you breathe again as your boat is taken in their swift 
embrace, and you are borne far above the darker ravine of 


X7 


256 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


the sea to a pinnacle of spreading foam, whence yon may 
look to the distant horizon in that search for other ships; 
which may he pastime, or may he, as in onr case, a search on 
which your very life depends. 

How often during that long afternoon, when my hair 
was matted with the salt of the spray, and my hands were 
burnt with a consuming fire, and my body was chill or hot 
with the fever of the long exposure, did I, from such a pin- 
nacle, cast my eyes around the foam-decked waste, and, 
finding it all barren, feel my heart sink as the dinghy swept 
again into the dark-green abyss, and all around me were the 
walls of water! How many prayers did not I send up in 
the silence of my heart; how many thoughts of Roderick 
and of Mary, how many farewells to them! And when I 
prayed for life, and no answer seemed to come, and I 
remembered the years that might have been before me — 
years now to be unknown in the silence of the grave — I had 
a great bitterness against all fate and all men, and I 
crouched in the boat with my suffering heavy upon me. 
But Black continued to drink, and when the sun fell low 
in the west, and the whole heavens were as mountains and 
peaks of the crimson fire, I knew by his mutterings that 
the frenzy of the old madness was upon him. 

At one time he called upon his wife, I doubt not, and 
gave mad words of self-reproach and of regret. And then 
he would mutter of his son, as though the lad could help 
him; and many times he cried out: ^^My God! the ship’s 
going — hands lower boats!’’ Or he raved with fierce threats 
and awful cries at the American he had buried, or made 
desperate appeals to some apparition that came to him in 
his dreadful dream. But at the last he grew almost inco- 
herent, thinking that I was the dead lad; and he set him- 
self wildly to chafe my hands, and put spirit at my lips. I 
was then nigh dead with want of sleep and fatigue, for I had 
not rested during the fight with the ironclads; and when he 
covered me with the small tarpaulin, and made a rough 
pillow in the bow, I went to sleep almost at once; and was 
as one drunk with the torpor of the rest. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


267 


Twice during that long night I must have roused myself. 
I recall well a heaven of stars, and a moonlit sea glowing 
with the pale light; while looking down upon me were the 
eyes of a madman, who clutched the sides of the dinghy with 
trembling and claw-like hands, and had a scream upon his 
lips. And again at the second time I looked upward to be- 
hold a faint break of grey in the leaden sky, and to feel warm 
raindrops heating upon me. But I heard no sound, and 
scarce turning in my heaviness, I slept again; and all 
through my sleep I dreamed that there was the echo of a 
voice, as of the voice of the damned, calling to me from the 
sea, and that, though I w^ould have helped the man whose 
hand was above the waters, I could not move, for an iron 
grip, as the grip of Fate, held me to my place. 

When I awoke for the third time, the dinghy was held 
firmly by a boat-hook, and was being drawn toward a jolly- 
boat full of seamen. I rose up, rubbing my eyes as a man 
seeing a vision; but, when the men shouted something to 
me in German, I had another exclamation on my lips, for I 
was alone in the boat, and Black had left me. 

Then I looked across the sea, and I saw a long black 
steamer lying-to a mile away, and the men dragged me into 
their craft, and shouted hearty words of encouragement, and 
they put liquor to my lips, and fell to rowing with great 
joy. Yet I remembered my dream, and it seemed to me 
that the voice I had heard in my sleep was the voice of 
Black, who cried to me as he had cast himself to his death 
in the Atlantic. 

Was the man dead? Had he really ended that most 
remarkable life of evil enterprise and of crime; or had he 
by some miracle found safety while I slept? As the Ger- 
mans rowed me quickly toward their steamer, and comforted 
me as one would comfort a child that is found destitute by 
the wayside, I turned this thought over again and again in 


258 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


my mind. Had the man gone out of my life wrapped in the 
mystery which had surrounded him from the first? Did 
he still live to dream dreams of vengeance, and of robbery? 
Or had he simply cast himself from the dinghy in a fit of 
insanity, and died the terrible death of the suicide? I could 
not answer the tremendous question; had no clue to it; but 
I had not reached the shelter of the steamer which had saved 
me before I had made the discovery that the belt of linen 
which had been about Black’s waist was now about mine, 
tied firmly with a sailor’s knot, and when I put my hand 
upon the linen I found that it was filled with some hard 
and sharp stones, which had all the feel of pebbles. In- 
stinctively I knew the truth; that in his last hour the master 
of the nameless ship had retained his curious affection for 
me; had made over to me some of that huge hoard of wealth 
he must have accumulated by his years of pillage; and I 
restrained myself with difficulty from casting the whole 
there and then into the waters which had witnessed his 
battles for it. But the belt was firmly lashed about me, and 
we were on the deck of the steamer before my benumbed 
hands could set the lashing free. 

It would be idle for me to attempt to describe to you all 
I felt as the captain of the steamship Hoffnung greeted 
me upon his quarterdeck, and his men sent up rounds of 
cheers which echoed over the waters. I stood for some 
minutes forgetful of everything, save that I had been 
snatched from that prison of steel; brought from the 
shadow of the living death to the hope of seeing friends, 
and country, and home again. Now one man wrung my 
hand, now another brought clothes, now another hot food; 
but I stood as one stricken dumb, holding nervously 
to the taffrail as though none should drag me down 
again to the horrors of the dinghy, or to that ter- 
rible loneliness which had hung over my life for so 
many weeks. And then there came a great reaction, an 
overpowering weakness, a great sense of thankfulness, and 
tears gushed up in my eyes and fell upon my be- 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


259 


numbed hands. The good fellows about me, whose 
German was for the most part unintelligible to me, appre- 
ciated well the condition in which I was; and, with many 
encouraging pats on the back, they forced me down their 
companion way to the skipper’s cabin, and so to a bunk, 
where I lay inanimate, and deep in sleep for many hours. 
But I awoke as another man, and when I had taken a great 
bowl of soup and some wine, my strength seemed to return 
to me with bounds, and I sat up to find they had taken 
away my clothes, but that the belt which Black had bound 
about me lay at the foot of the bunk and was unopened. 

For some minutes I held this belt in my hand with a 
curious and inexplicable hesitation. It was not heavy, 
being all of linen finely sewed; but when at last I made up 
my mind to open it, I did so with my teeth, tearing the 
threads at the top of it, and so ripping it down. The action 
was followed by a curious result, for as I opened the seams 
there fell upon my bed some twenty or thirty diamonds of 
such size and such luster that they lay sparkling with a 
thousand lights which dazzled the eyes, and made me utter 
a cry at once of surprise and of admiration. White stones 
they were, Brazilian diamonds of the first water; and when 
I undid the rest of the seam, and opened the belt fully, I 
found at least fifty more, with some superb black pearls, a 
fine emerald, and a little parcel of exquisite rubies. To the 
latter there was attached a paper with the words, ‘^My son, 
for as such I regard you, take these; they are honestly 
come by. And let me write while I can that I have loved 
you before God. Remember this when you forget Captain 
Black.” 

That was all; and I judged that the stones were worth 
five thousand pounds if they were worth a penny. I could 
scarce realize it all as I read the note again and again, and 
handled the sparkling, glittering baubles, which made my 
bunk a cave of dazzling light; or wrapped them once more 
in the linen, using it as a bag, and tying it round my neck 


260 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


for safety. It seemed indeed that I had come to riches as 
I had come again to freedom; and in the strange bewilder- 
ment of it all I dressed myself in the rough clothes which 
the skipper had sent to me, and bounded on deck to greet a 
glorious day and the fresh awakening breezes of the sunlit 
Atlantic. It was difficult to believe that there was not a 
reckoning yet to come; that the nameless ship had gone to 
her doom. Had I in reality escaped the terrors of the 
dinghy? This question I asked myself again and again as 
the soft wind fanned my face; and I went to the bulwarks, 
looking away where soon we should sight the Scillies, while 
the honest fellows crowded round me, and showered 
every kindness upon me. Yet for days and weeks after 
that, even now sometimes when I am among my own 
again, I awake in my sleep with troubled cries, and the 
dark gives me hack the life which was my long night of 
suffering. 

The Hoffnung was hound to Konigsherg, hut when the 
skipper and I had come to understand each other by signs 
and writing, he, mth great consideration, offered to put 
into Southampton, and leave me there. This took a great 
weight from my mind, for I was burning with anxiety to 
hear of my friends again; and when we entered the channel 
on the third night, I found sleep far from my eyes, and 
paced the deck until dawn broke. We dropped anchor off 
Southampton at three in the afternoon, and when I had 
insisted on Captain Wolfram taking one of my diamonds 
as a souvenir for himself, and one to sell for the crew, I 
put off in his long-boat with a deep sense of his humanity 
and kindness, and with hearty cheers from his crew. 

I should have gone to the quay at once then, hut crossing 
the roads I saw a yacht at anchor, and I recognized her as 
my own yacht Celsis, with Dan pacing her poop. To put to 
her side was the work of a moment, and I do not think that 
I ever gave a heartier hail than that ‘^Ahoy, Daniel!” which 
then fell from my lips. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


‘261 


^^Ahoy!’^ cried Dan in reply, ^“^not as it oughtn’t to be 
Daniel, but with no disrespect to the other gent — why, blis- 
ter my foretop, if it ain’t the guvnor!” 

And the old fellow began to shout and to wave his arms 
and to throw ropes about as though he were smitten with 
lunacy. 


V, 


262 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

I FALL TO WONDERING. 


I had sprung up the ladder, which was always at the side 
of the Celsis, before Dan had gathered his scattered wits to 
remember that it was there. It was worth much to watch 
that honest fellow as he gripped my hand in his two great 
paws; and then let it go to walk away, and survey me at 
a distance; or drew nearer again, and seemed to wish to 
give me a great hug as a bear hugs its cub. But I cut him 
short ’with a gesture, and asked him if Roderick and Mary 
were aboard. 

‘^They’re down below, as I’m alive, and the hands is 
ashore, but they’ll come aboard for this, drunk or sober. 
Thunder! if I was ten year younger — but there, I ain’t, and 
you’ll be wakin’ ’em; do you see, they’re restin’ after 
victuals down in the saloon. Shall I tell ’em as you’ve called 
in passing like? Lord, I can hardly see out of my eyes for 
looking at you, sir.” 

Poor old Dan did not quite know what he 'was doing. I 
left him in the midst of his strange talk, and walked softly 
down the companion way to the door of the saloon, and I 
opened it and stood, I doubt not, before them as one come 
from the dead. Mary, whose childish face looked very 
drawn, was sitting before a book, open upon the table, her 
head resting upon her hands, and a strange expression of 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


263 


melancholy in her great dark eyes. But Eoderick lay upon 
a sofa bunk, and was fast asleep, with the novel which he 
had been reading lying crumpled upon the floor. 

I had opened the door so gently that neither of them 
moved as I entered the room. It was to me the best moment 
of my life to be looking again upon them, and I waited for 
one minute until Mary raised her head and our eyes met. 
Then I bent over the cabin table and kissed her, and I felt 
her clinging to me, and though she never spoke, her eyes 
were wet with hot tears; and when she smiled through them 
it was as a glimpse of bright sunlight shining through a 
rain shower. In another moment there was nothing but 
the expression of a great childish joy on her face, and the old 
Mary spoke. 

^^Mark, I can’t believe it,” she said, holding me close 
lest I might go away again, ^‘and I always guessed you’d 
come.” 

But Roderick awoke with a yawn, and when he saw me 
he rubbed his eyes, and said as one in a dream: 

^^Oh, is that 5^ou?” 

^ 

The tea which Mary made was very fragrant, and Rode- 
rick’s cigars had a fine rich flavor of their own, to which we 
did justice, as we sat long that afternoon, and I told of the 
days in Ice-haven. It was a long story, as you know, and I 
could give them but the outline of it, or, in turn, hear but 
a tenth part of their own anxieties and ceaseless efforts in 
my behalf. It appeared that when I had failed to return 
to the hotel on that night when I followed Paolo to the 
den in the Bowery, Roderick had gone at once to the yacht, 
and there had learned from Dan of my intention. He did 
not lose an instant in seeking the aid of the police, but I 
was even then astern of the Labrador, and the keen search 
which the New York detectives had made was fruitless even 
in gleaning any tidings of me. Paolo was followed night 
and day for twenty-four hours; but he was shot in a drink- 


264 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


ing den before the detectives laid hands on him, and lived 
long enough only to send Mary a message, telling her that 
her pretty eyes had saved the Celsis from disaster in the 
Atlantic. On the next day, both the skipper and Roderick 
made public all they knew of Black and his crew, and a 
greater sensation was never made in any city. The news 
was cabled to Europe over half a dozen wires, was hurried 
to the Pacific, to Japanese seas — ^it shook the navies of the 
world with an excitement rarely known, and for some 
weeks it paralyzed all traffic on the Atlantic. Cruisers of 
many nations were sent in the course of the great ocean- 
going steamers; arms were carried by some of the largest of 
the passenger ships, and the question was asked daily before 
all other questions, “Is the nameless ship taken Yet, it 
was no more than a few weeks’ wonder; for we had fled to 
Ice-haven, and people who heard no more of the new 
piracy asked themselves, “Are not these the dreams of 
dreamers?” 

Meanwhile Roderick and Mary, who suffered all the 
anguish of suspense, returned to Europe, and to London, 
there to interview the First Lord of the Admiralty,^and to 
hear the whole matter discussed in Parliament. Several 
war-ships and cruisers were dispatched to the Atlantic, but 
returned to report the ill-result of their mission, which 
could have had but this end, since Black was then in the 
shelter of the fjord at Greenland; and none thought of 
seeking him there. Nor was my oldest friend content with 
this national action and the subsequent offer of a reward of 
£50,000 for the capture of the nameless ship or of her 
crew, for he put the best private detectives in the city at 
the work, sending two to New York, and others to Paris 
and to Spezia. These fathomed something of the earlier 
mystery of Captain Black’s life, but the man’s after deeds 
were hidden from them; and when the weeks passed and I 
did not come, all thought that I had died in my self-ap- 
pointed mission — another of his many victims. 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


265 


It was but a few days after this sorrowful conviction that 
Black and I went to London, and were seen by Inspector 
King, who had watched night and day for the man’s coming. 
The detective had immediately telegraphed to the Admir- 
alty, and to Eoderick, who had reached my hotel to find 
that I had already left. Then he had hurried back to 
Southampton, there to hear of the going of the war-ships 
and to wait with Mary tidings of the last great battle, which 
meant life or death to me. 

Long we sat discussing these things, and very bright 
were a pair of dark eyes that listened again to Eoderick’s 
story, and then to more of mine. But Eoderick himself had 
awoke from his lethargy, and his enthusiasm broke through 
all his old restraint. 

^^To-morrow, why, to-morrow, by George, youTl astound 
London. My dear fellow, we’ll go to town together to claim 
the £50,000 which the Admiralty offered, and the £20,000 
from the Black Anchor line, to say nothing of American 
money galore. You’re made for life, old man; and we’ll 
take the old yacht north to Greenland, and hunt up the 
place and Black’s tender, which seems to have escaped the 
ironclads, and it’ll be the finest trip we ever knew.” 

‘^What does Mary say?” I asked, as she still held my 
hand. 

don’t mean to leave you again,” she answered, and as 
she spoke there was a great sound of cheering above, and 
a great tramp of feet upon the deck; and as we hurried up, 
the hands I loved to see crowded about me, and their shout- 
ing was carried far over the water, and was taken up on 
other ships, which threw their search-lights upon us, so that 
the night was as a new day to me, and the awakening from 
the weeks of dreaming as the coming of spring after winter’s 
dark. Yet, as the child-face was all lighted with radiant 
smiles, and honest hands clasped mine, and the waters 
echoed the triumphant greeting, I could not but think again 
of Captain Black, or ask myself — Is the man really dead, or 


266 


THE IRON PIRATE. 


shall we yet hear of him, bringing terror upon the sea, and 
death and suffering; the master of the nations, and the 
child of a wanton ambition? Or is his grave in the great 
Atlantic that he ruled in the mighty moments of his 
power? 

Ah, I wonder! 


THE END. 


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